Dimensions Book One: Links
by Blazing Chaos
Summary: Rewrite available, see profile. In retrieving the Digimon, Takato didn't exactly imagine a virus sweeping across the internet, a strange force playing its hand and learning something about a friend that could change things forever between them. Rukato
1. Hazard Virus

Hello and welcome to the first in what I hope to be a long series of Digimon Fanfics. I have this story that you are about to read already planned out, but obviously actually writing it will take longer. First things first:

DISCLAIMER: Blazing Chaos does not own Digimon, but does own the OCs introduced in this story and later stories.

This first chapter starts about where the end of Tamers left off. Oh, by the way, if you dislike Rukato, I don't think you'll enjoy this series of stories. But, for the Rukato fans…enjoy.

* * *

**DIMENSIONS**

_**BOOK ONE**_

_Links_

By Blazing Chaos

* * *

**CHAPTER 1**

_Hazard Virus  
_

* * *

**DIGITAL PLANE**

**Unknown Time**

The digital plane. A place between reality and digi-reality. A place where up is down, down is up and right is wrong. Mostly empty and white, it has crisscrossed grids and lines of data. And, on this occasion, a huge blob-like object, known as the D-Reaper. The D-Reaper, a short while before in the human world, had been a threat to life itself. Overwhelming Tokyo, it threatened to destroy all life globally, along with the city itself. However, the brave efforts of the Digimon Tamers, humans who had become partnered with creatures called Digimon, had managed to stop it.

However, this story was not about the D-Reaper. It is, instead, about the Tamers, and in particular for this section, their Digimon, which happened to be right behind the D-Reaper.

"Wow, watch that huge blobby thing vanish," said a small greenish blob called Gummimon. Despite being Terriermon's in-training form, he lacked none of the wit.

"It appears that it is being deleted. As, it appears, shall we," dejectedly said another blob, this one yellow with small fox ears.

The group of blobs sighed. The largest, MarineAngemon, a mega Digimon, simply said a sad "Pi Pi".

"Way to ruin the mood Viximon" said Gummimon to the yellow one.

However, one of the blobs had not adopted a defeatist attitude.

"No, I can't be deleted. Takato promised me that he'd see me again, and HE WILL!!" screamed a red blob with bat ears. Suddenly, it was bathed in red light, and it began to morph.

"What's up with Pineapple Head?" said a small blob that looked like an Impish face.

"It looks like Gigimon is digivolving", said the yellow blob in amazement. "But how?"

**Gigimon Digivolve to…**

**Guilmon**

"I'm out of here" said Guilmon angrily. Suddenly, Guilmon cut a sear in the plane, and through it could be seen another world. Guilmon dived through.

"Well, that seems like a better idea than getting destroyed like the D-Reaper. Last one through is data!" exclaimed Gummimon, jumping after him. The rest followed, except one.

Viximon stared at the wave of deletion approaching her like a cat caught in headlights. The D-Reaper had now been eliminated and all that remained was her. She noticed red streaks of an odd light flying everywhere. She jumped through the portal.

* * *

**DIGITAL WORLD**

**Lowest Level**

**Unknown Time**

The Digimon landed in a pile outside the portal as the portal evaporated. They were in a desert, expanding as far as the eye could see, with no life in sight.

"Hmm, from one plane to another plain." Gummimon joked.

"Not the time Gummimon" replied Kokomon.

The group sighed (or said "pi pi").

"Well, looks like we're walking," said Kapurimon.

"Unless…" questioned Gummimon, before jumping on Guilmon's back. "Let's go Guilmon!" The rest of the group soon followed.

Guilmon moaned "Oh, but that isn't fair on me, I don't get to ride anyone."

Gummimon jokingly replied "Well you shouldn't have digivolved then. Now go!"

* * *

**REAL WORLD **

**Near Matsuki Bakery, West Shinjuku**

**18:30 JST (Japan Standard Time)**

**18th October 2007**

A boy rushed past a group of people. He ran towards a bakery, in through the door, past several bemused customers, and into the lounge at the back.

"Hi Mum …" he quickly said whilst taking his shoes off.

"How was school dear?" Mie Matsuki asked.

"Oh…it was great…yeah, great. The temporary buildings are okay, but we joke that Guilmon could easily knock them down when he is planning to raid the cafeteria" Takato Matsuki replied, sighing when mentioning the name of his recently lost Digimon Partner. He stared at the wall for a short while thinking, before hearing a television nearby.

"_**So what's the situation Diana?"**_

"_**Well, it's looking pretty grim. This new virus seems to infect computers and switch data across the network, corrupt files, and various other things, almost completely randomly. It's chaotic."**_

"_**Have any security programs managed to find a way to neutralise it?"**_

"_**No, I'm being told that they've tried but have failed so far since the virus seems to destroy anything that attempts to neutralise it, hence it has been nicknamed the 'Hazard Virus'"**_

Takato winced at the word Hazard, which brought back memories of when he made a big mistake and let his anger control him, creating Megidramon.

"…however, the attacks have decreased in number in the last few hours, and the virus seems to be dying out on its own."

"Hey Son" said Takehiro Matsuki, working away on the computer in the corner.

"Hi Dad…um…you do know that you are meant to turn the computer on before you can use it…right?"

"Yeah, of course, but it doesn't seem to be working. It must be this hazard virus thing everyone is talking about. You're the expert at computers, you give it a shot."

"Well, I'm hardly an expert…but…I'll try it."

Takato bent down and pressed the button on the front. Unbeknownst to him, his finger glowed red for a second.

"Hey, it worked."

"Yeah…must just be one of those weird things with computers. Hey, can I get online, I want to check my emails, Mrs Asagi said that to save on paper they're sending all our work by email. The way she gives out homework, I think it'll save a whole rainforest."

"Yeah, sure, doesn't look like I'll get our accounts done today anyway. When I was a kid, we just used pen and paper, now its all data this, email that…" Takehiro said, before retiring to work the till in the bakery.

"O…kay…" Takato said bemused. "Right, let's see…"

"Username:

**T-a-k-a-t-o**

Password:"

Takato checked that no-one was looking.

'_Okay, __**G-u-i-l-m-o-n**__'_ he thought. "I'm surprised my parents haven't guessed it yet. Okay, here we go, Windows Live Mail. Ugh, that much homework. Hold on, email 1 of 9…awww" Takato groaned.

Takato saved the attachments to the desktop. However, something caught his eye.

"**171007.doc"**

"Eh? Where did that come from?"

Takato double clicked the file.

"Huh…"

"**Dear Diary,**

**Well, looks like life is back to normal after that thing. And by back to normal I mean back to horrible. And yet…I think something has changed. You see, I seem to suddenly have feelings for…him. He may be a total doofus and a walking disaster but…I like him…a lot. But…he likes her. Of course he does, everyone knows that, oddly except those two themselves. Hey, I wouldn't be surprised if the two morons hadn't figured it out yet. Meh, regardless, makes no difference to me.**

**Sigh**

**Hold on, did I just type Sigh? I must be going insane. I wish she were here, life is so boring without anything happening.**

**Rika"**

Takato blinked several times. And then several times more. He reread the email.

"…**feelings for…him…"**

"…**walking disaster…"**

"…**I like him a lot…"**

"…**but he likes her…"**

"…**makes no difference to me…"**

"…**I wish she were here…"**

And then he read the name again.

"**Rika"**

Takato leaned back in his chair. He stared at the screen and stared off into space.

"What's up son?" asked his father.

"Erm…nothing…nothing at all" Takato said, quickly minimising the diary entry.

"Okay…sure, I believe you" his father replied sarcastically, returning to the bakery.

Takato sat and thought for a short while.

'_Well…if it is her, I suppose I should give the entry back to her. Hmm, what's her email? Damn, I don't know it. I know what I'll do; I'll stick it on my memory stick and give it to her personally. I haven't spoken to her for a while, I'd like a chat. Whether she'd want one after me giving her the diary entry back is another question…she doesn't really strike me as the kind of person who'd write a diary, it's a surprise really…'_ Takato thought.

Takato plugged in his memory stick and dropped the file onto it, making sure to cut and paste it. He unplugged the stick and put it in his coat. He put his coat on and walked towards the door.

"Hey Mum, I'll be back soon, I promise"

"You'd better be. You know that dinner is at 7." replied his mother.

"Yeah, I do…"

"Where are you go…" she stopped as she heard the door slam. She sighed.

"What's wrong dear?" asked her husband from round the back of the bakery.

"Ah nothing, some kids actually tell their mothers where they are going when they go out"

"Hmm…"

* * *

**Shinjuku Park, near Utility Storage Cupboard 14, AKA Guilmon's Hideout **

**19:00 JST**

Takato walked through the park, and passed the hideout where Guilmon had lived for months earlier that year. He sighed at the happy memories which they had had.

"Now, I think this is the quickest way to her hou…huh, what's that noise?"

Takato paused as he listened for the noise. He heard a faint static noise coming from the hideout. He walked up the steps and looked into the hideout.

"Nope, nothing here. Hold on, maybe…nah, can't be…I may as well look…."

Takato crawled into the hole in the hideout that had been dug by his former partner over the course of at least a month. What he saw next made him gasp. Ahead of him was a glowing ball of data. The portal. The one to the digital world. A way back…to Guilmon. He climbed out of the hole and sat down, taking in this surprise. He then decided to call the others.

* * *

**Nonaka Household **

**19:10 JST**

"Where is it? No, anyone could have it if it's that virus…stupid virus. Damn…" Rika groaned, whacking the monitor with her hand. "This thing's a piece of junk" she muttered. She walked over and fell down on her futon. She knew that making that diary was a mistake, what was she thinking?

"Rika dear, you have a call…"

"Huh?"

* * *

**Payphone 4946, Shinjuku Park**

**19:11 JST**

"Hey Rika, it's me Takato"

"Oh, hey Gogglehead."

"Long time no talk eh?"

"Um…yeah…so why are you calling?"

"**TO CONTINUE, INSERT 50 YEN**"

"…"

"**click**"

"Takato?"

"Sorry, had to put more money in. Anyway, I've made an interesting discovery."

"That no-one has ever worn Goggles who isn't an idiot or a swimmer?"

"Oh ha ha. Anyway, I think you'll like this news. It's back."

"What is?"

"The portal to the Digital World."

"What?!"

"**TO CONTINUE, INSERT 50 YEN**. Darn, I'm out of money, call Henry and then both of you can meet me here."

"But…beep"

* * *

**Shinjuku Park, Guilmon's Hideout**

**19:35 JST**

Takato sat on the floor of the hideout. Looking around, he remembered the happy days he shared with Guilmon and the other Tamers here. Sure, they tended to degenerate into battles with each other (both with Digimon or cards), with wild Digimon or Devas. Since they had lost their Digimon, they had tended to hang out here less often. Takato thought to himself that he was looking forward to having days like that again if they managed to get their Digimon back.

But…would they…

Takato thought of the diary entry again. If he were to tell Rika about him having it…would she ever be able to face him again? Rika was hardly the most open of the group, and she preferred to avoid situations that prompted tense emotions like that. Takato would hate to see her turn away from friendship again.

But, even without it, could Takato see her same way again? He had now discovered that email, and he wouldn't forget it. He silently cursed to himself that he had read that email in the first place. But at the same time, he strangely thought that he was glad he had opened it.

Takato then had an even stranger thought. Did he feel…the same way?

Sure, he had a crush on Jeri but…was that all it was? He'd only ever said it once, when Jeri was under the control of the D-Reaper. But…the events after that had made him doubt it. The rejection, despite not being clear, had hit him hard. Of course, he'd saved her as a friend, but, as he thought more, he realised that…that may have been all it was. Takato groaned and leaned back on the wall.

Since the D-Reaper attack and the loss of the Digimon, they had all been split up mainly. Sure, he saw Henry and the others who went to his school regularly, but he saw Rika and Ryo less often. Jeri had gone into counselling to cope with the intense mental stress that the D-Reaper had put on her, after the obvious medical checks that were needed after such a major problem. Jeri seemed to be recovering, and accepting her step-mother more. She clearly still missed Leomon, since she lacked the chance to say goodbye like the rest of them, given the sudden nature of his death. Takato couldn't imagine losing Guilm…well…he didn't have to really, given the way events turned out.

Takato then remembered a line from the diary…

"…**I wish she were here…"**

'_I guess that Rika misses Renamon too. Those too didn't look as close as the rest of us, but they seemed to have a really close unspoken bond.'_

Takato put his hands behind his back and stared up at the gray ceiling of the hideout. Suddenly, he felt his Goggles ping back against his head.

"Ow, that hurt!" Takato exclaimed.

"Sorry, couldn't resist." a familiar voice replied. Takato sat up and looked at the familiar face of Rika Nonaka. She still wore the classic (well, not completely classic, it used to be broken) full heart T-shirt, blue jeans and brown belt. Her D-Arc was strapped to her waist. Even without their Digimon, they continued to carry their D-Arcs regularly. It was simply too much a part of their lives not to do so, and it was a kind of tribute to their former partners. Her card pocket was strapped to the other side of her waist. Takato swore that he saw a faint blush on her face.

"Oh thanks a lot."

"No problem. Now, I presume the portal is in the hole?"

"Yeah…shouldn't you wait for Henry?"

"Screw him, I want to see it."

"Fine…"

A few seconds later, she returned.

"Was it always such a boring blob of data?"

"Yes…"

"Meh, if it's a way to get back to Renamon, I couldn't care less."

"Hey Takato, Rika" yelled another familiar voice.

"Hey Henry" replied Takato, as he watched the boy wearing the orange jacket and blue undershirt with grey trousers arrive. Like both Takato and Rika, he had his D-Arc on him. Takato still felt that it was strange to see Henry lacking his comedian partner Terriermon, since they always made such a great team.

"Hey Brainiac" replied Henry to the same person.

"Still with the nicknames eh Rika" Henry replied dryly to Rika. "So, I presume the portal is in the hole?"

"Am I the only one who didn't guess that first time?"

"Yes, because you are a doofus" replied Rika.

Takato saw the words of the diary flash before his eyes.

"**He may be a total doofus and a walking disaster but…I like him…a lot."**

"So, what do we do now then?" asked Takato to take his mind off things.

"Well, isn't it obvious Gogglehead? We simply go in there, get our partners back, as well as the two Morons' Digimon, Henry's sister's Digimon, the annoying imp and, if we must, Mr Perfect's Digimon, so long as they pay us of course, and then we come back and continue to defend the world."

"Ah, so simple, yet that plan fails miserably for one reason. Well, actually, several sub-reasons too…"

"Just spill it Brainiac" interrupted Rika.

"Fine. We need a plan. And we also need supplies, a comms device and a way to get home."

"So, in simple terms, we just have to talk to your Dad and Hypnos, right?" asked Takato enthusiastically.

"Yeah, like that'll be easy" replied Rika. "If you haven't been keeping score, it was Janyuu's idea to let us lose the Digimon in the first place."

"It was a mistake" asserted Henry

"Yeah sure, and Gogglehead doesn't have a crush on Puppet Girl"

"Fantastic sarcasm Rika…"

'_Oh great, they're arguing. Hold on, did Rika just wince when she said that about me and Jeri? Oh, this is going to go on forever unless I do something'_ thought Takato

"Stop fighting the pair of you," blurted Takato, interrupting their argument. "Look, it looks like we have no other way than to consult Hypnos, anything else is suicide. So, here's what we do. Henry talks to his Dad and gets him to talk to Hypnos. Meanwhile, I and Rika suck up to our parents so they let us go. Alright, now who's with me?"

"Okay, who are you and what did you do with Gogglehead?" Rika joked.

Takato simply groaned and lay back on the wall of the hideout.

"Fine, I'll do it"

"Sure, I'll try to get my Dad to agree, I can't promise anything though"

"Good."

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

* * *

So, I'd like to know what you thought of it so far. It'd help if you'd review it, please only constructive reviews, and questioning my choice of couplings won't make me change anything. Clearly, as you can tell, this is only a tiny portion of the story, and is basically a connection between Tamers and this first book. I liked to put in references to the diary, and it'll be interesting to see how Takato reacts, and how Rika reacts when she finds out he's read it, if Takato decides to show her it, of course.

Next time…

Can Henry convince his Dad to let him go to the Digital World? Will Takato remember to show Rika the diary? How many hours will Takato have to work the till to pay his debt to his parents if they let him go? And also, how are they going to survive in the Digital World with no Digimon for defence, and no plan whatsoever of how to find them.

Find out in 'You've Got Some Convincing To Do', Chapter 2 of Dimensions Book One: Links.


	2. You've Got Some Convincing To Do

Welcome back to my saga. Anyway, first things first, the customary:

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Digimon, but I do own all OCs in this story. Okay, got that? Good.

I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed the previous chapter. Right, now let's continue the story

* * *

**DIMENSIONS**

_**BOOK ONE**_

_Links_

By Blazing Chaos

* * *

**CHAPTER 2**

_You've Got Some Convincing To Do  
_

* * *

**REAL WORLD**

**Wong Residence, West Shinjuku Apartment Complex 10B**

**19:53 JST**

Henry quickly ascended the stairs to his front door. As much as he would have liked to dawdle so he could think and consider what he would say, that could potentially jeopardise their chances of leaving the next day, since the Hypnos boss, Yamaki, and the monster makers, would both probably be asleep by then. Arriving at the front door, he remembered something Rika had said earlier.

"**If you haven't been keeping score, it was Janyuu's idea to let us lose the Digimon in the first place."**

He winced at the thought, and he started to think it was true. His dad did actually already know that they would lose the Digimon, and yet he lied to them by not telling them. For a few weeks afterwards, he had held his father in resentment, and he knew that his father felt he had done wrong too. Eventually, his father had asked for forgiveness, and Henry had agreed. But…what Rika said and the prospect of the Digimon returning had brought all that bitterness back. And now, he was going to try and convince his father, the one who had been so upset that his children had been allowed to be involved in this dangerous and life-threatening game due to his college project, that they should get their Digimon back. He could hear Terriermon trying to reassure him now.

"**Momentai"**

Henry sighed. If this didn't work, then he'd likely never hear that word from his partner again. He turned the key in the lock and opened the door.

"Hi Henwy. Where were yuw? Yuw said yuwd be back at eight o'cwock so yuw could hewlp me wiwh Princess Prewerty Pants on one of my Dolls."

"I was seeing my friends Suzie"

"Owh, the angwy kid and the mean one"

"**I'm not angry!!"**

Henry could hear the words now clear as day. He chuckled quietly to himself. This caught his father's attention.

"Oh hi son, how were your friends?"

"Oh, they were fine. Dad…we need to talk."

Janyuu Wong frowned.

"…so you see, we can't go back to save them without assistance, it'd be sui…a dangerous mission."

"I see. So what do you want me to do?"

"I want you to contact Hypnos and the Monster Makers and arrange us some support."

Janyuu looked at Henry for a few seconds.

"Alright then. But you have to promise me you'll be careful."

"I will Dad."

"I mean it, seriously. You won't have any defence to help you until you find one of your partners. This is far more risky than last time."

"I know"

"Okay son. Now, let's see. Its 21:00 hours. Shibumi normally reserves this time for watching Doctor Who, but he owes me for me not taking his favourite mouse during a poker game back in '84…"

Janyuu picked up the handset of the phone.

"_Yep, my father is a geek."_

* * *

**Nonaka Residence, East Shinjuku**

**19:54 JST**

"Hi Grandma, I'm home"

"Oh, hi dear. Later than normal I see, anything interesting happen?" replied Seiko Hata, working on the computer.

"For once, something did. Is mum home?"

"No, she's doing a late photo shoot."

"Perfect"

"Did you just say perfect? I thought you two were getting along better now"

"That's not the reason why this time."

"Well what is it then dear?"

"Well…Tak…Gogglehead…discovered something…"

"A sense of fashion perhaps?"

"I knew you had it in you Grandma" Rika replied happily. Both laughed for a short while.

"So, what did he actually discover?"

"A portal to the digital world."

Seiko nearly spat out her tea when she heard that.

"But…didn't Janyuu say…"

"Yes…he did. But it's back…somehow, not too sure, and me, Gogglehead and Brainiac plan to go back and retrieve all of our Digimon."

"I see, and I presume you want permission."

Rika nodded. Seiko sighed and returned to her computer.

"So…can I go?"

"You'll need to ask your mother on that one. I know what you're doing here; you're trying to avoid her because you know she'll overreact. I'm not bailing you out this time."

"But Grandma…"

"No buts. You've got to learn to face up to your problems for once Young Lady."

"Fine…" resigned Rika, biting her lip. She hated it when Seiko called her 'Young Lady'; it reminded her of Rumiko, her mother. "So when will she get back then?"

"Around 11pm"

Rika groaned. "Well, then I'll need advice on what to say then."

"I'll be happy to help.

* * *

**Matsuki Residence, West Shinjuku**

**19:55 JST**

When Takato arrived back at the bakery, he found his mother packing the last of the equipment away.

"Oh hi dear, did you see your friends?" asked Mie Matsuki inquisitively.

"…oh…Yeah, I did" answered Takato, finally coming out of a trance from staring at the wall.

"What's the matter son?" asked his father from the back of the bakery.

"Well…I've got to tell you something…"

Mie and Takehiro looked at each other. Takato felt uneasy, and saw a knowing glance between the two. He decided to break the silence.

"Maybe we should talk about this in the lounge" he finally said.

"So, what have you got to tell us?" asked Takehiro.

"Well, you see. You remember when we went to the digital world, we went via a portal. Well, we thought it had gone when D-Reaper was destroyed, but it survived. And…I want to go with Henry and Rika to get our Digimon back."

Mie stared off into space for a short while, contemplating. She finally spoke. "I knew this day would come."

"…so…can I go?"

"We'll talk about it Son and we'll tell you in the morning" replied his father, to which Takato replied with a defeated nod. The words "We'll talk about it" always had this effect; there was a big chance he wouldn't get to go.

"Okay then Dad…I'm going to bed now." Takato said.

"But it's only 9 o'clock."

"Yes, but it's been a long day and I'm tired." Takato said, as he took his coat off and put it on the hook. He walked up to his room, opened the door and walked in, lightly slamming it behind me. He laid back on the bed, and made a decision that was completely unlike him.

"_I'm going…even if they say I can't."_

Takato prepared for bed, and listened to the sounds of talking…nay…arguing from downstairs. He sighed and settled into bed

* * *

**Nonaka Residence, East Shinjuku**

**23:07 JST**

"What's keeping her?" moaned Rika, lying back on the settee watching television.

"I'm not sure dear," replied her Grandma. "Maybe she's caught in traffic?"

The phone rang. Seiko walked over and answered it.

"Hello, Nonaka Residence…oh, hi dear…oh, that's good…oh…so…uh-huh…well, Rika wanted to talk to you about…okay then, take care of yourself Honey, and I'll see you tomorrow…" Seiko placed the phone back on the base, and turned to Rika. Rika looked into her eyes and knew. She stood up and walked into her room. Seiko heard the sliding door slam, sighed and sat down on one of the chairs.

"Oh Rumiko, why do you keep putting your career ahead of your family?"

Rika lay back on her futon and stared up at the ceiling.

'_Figures. All it takes is a handsome face or an overnight modelling shoot and she stays in a hotel all night. Like I care.'_

But to herself, Rika knew the truth. She did care, and it was painful. She closed her eyes and thought.

'_I wish Gogglehead were here, he'd always say something really reassuring…that I'd probably just blow off with an insult…'_

Rika sighed. She stood up and made a decision. She pulled a backpack out of a wardrobe, and began to pack clothes and equipment into it. Sliding the door away gently, she slipped out of her room. She crept down the corridor, making sure that no-one was watching. She walked into the kitchen and began to pack supplies into her bag.

Meanwhile, Seiko listened from her bedroom. She sighed and laid down for a resigned sleep.

Rika returned to her room, and changed into her night clothes. Lying down, she placed the headphones of her MP3 player on her ears. She set the alarm, and lay down to sleep.

'_I wish you were here Renamon'_

* * *

**Wong Residence, West Shinjuku Apartment Complex 10B**

**23:15 JST**

Henry lay back on the sofa. His father had been talking on the phone for the last few hours. He silently hoped that everything could be okay, but his rationale told him something was up.

"…okay then…yes, we'll discuss it tomorrow, and they can go on…hey, give that back"

Janyuu tried to get the phone back from Henry, but failed. Henry then mentally sighed, before talking in a way that was unlike him but much like some of his friends.

"Yamaki, we _are_ going to the Digital World tomorrow, and if you don't back us up, we'll go it alone. Got that? Good." Henry said, slamming the receiver down on the handset, before retiring to his room. Janyuu watched with a sense of amazement, but mentally agreed.

'_Good luck Son'_

* * *

**Nonaka Residence, East Shinjuku**

**08:30 JST**

**19****th**** October 2007**

beep…beep…beep…beep…beep…beep

Rika unconsciously heard the noise and awoke from her slumber. She got up and quietly changed into her usual attire. She picked up her backpack and slipped it over her shoulders. Once again gently opening the sliding door, she once again crept down the corridor. She looked into her grandma's bedroom to check she was still asleep, and walked outside the back of her house round to the front entrance. She walked away down the stone walled streets, with one destination in mind.

Seiko Hata, lying down in her room, heard it all. She made a decision and picked up a bedside handset.

"_**Hello, this is Rumiko Non…"**_

"Rumiko, if you care at all about your daughter, you'll get back here this instant."

"_**But…"**_

It was too late. Seiko had slammed down the receiver

* * *

**Matsuki Residence, West Shinjuku**

**08:45 JST**

Takato awoke from his sleep. He looked around his room. He changed into his usual attire and walked to the door. He looked around the hallway, but shook his head and returned to his room. He threw some supplies and clothes into a bag, and opened his balcony door. Looking down at the sloped roof below, and the alleyway below that, he climbed over the balcony onto the roof. He carefully climbed down onto the alleyway below. He looked up at the balcony, and turned to head away from the bakery, walking down the alleyway and into the street, heading towards the park

* * *

**08:54 JST**

"Takato, Takato…I've made breakfast for you. Takato? Takato?!" Mie Matsuki shouted through the door in increasing panic. She opened the door and looked around at the open drawers, the open door and the general untidy nature of his room. She turned around and ran back into their room.

"Takehiro, wake up."

"…give me just 5 more minutes…tired…"

"Takato's run away."

"What?!" Takehiro sat up with a start. He stood up and got changed silently.

"What are we going to do?" quizzed his wife.

"We're going to call the other parents…and then we're going down to the park

* * *

**Wong Residence, West Shinjuku Apartment Complex 10B**

**08:57 JST**

"Hello, Wong Residence" Janyuu said picking up the phone.

"_**Hello, it's Takehiro Matsuki."**_

"Oh, hello…"

"_**Is Henry still there?"**_

"Yes he is, do you wish to speak to him?"

"_**No…but…Takato's run away, and we think we know where he's going"**_

Janyuu turned to see Henry watching from the doorway.

"I see…**beep**…hold on, I've got a call on the other line."

"_**Okay."**_

"Hello, Wong Residence"

"_**Hello, its Seiko, Rika's grandmother."**_

"Hello. Shall I presume that Rika has run away?"

"_**Yes, how did you guess?"**_

"Takato has done the same."

"_**Okay then, we'll meet you and Takato's parents at the park, okay?"**_

"Okay, bye…**beep**…hello Takehiro. I want you to meet us and Rika's parents at the park."

"_**Okay then"**_

"Bye." Janyuu said. He paused, before dialing another number. "Hello, Yamaki…I need you to get down to the park with whatever equipment the kids will need in the Digital World…okay, bye."

Janyuu placed the receiver on the hook. He turned to Henry.

"Henry, put whatever you'll need in a bag. We have five minutes before we need to get out of here, and I need to wake your mother."

"Good luck" joked Henry. In response Janyuu grinned, and they both went about with what they had to do

* * *

**Shinjuku Park, Guilmon's Hideout**

**09:20 JST**

A lone Rika Nonaka walked towards the hideout. Around her, the park was beginning to wake up for its Saturday routine. Children started to play on the swings, run around like madmen and do the random things that only children do. Rika stared at a father pushing his daughter on the swing and sighed. She walked up the steps into the hideout, and sat down on the hard floor, leaning back against the concrete wall.

She thought about what she was about to do. She was going to risk her life in order to rescue her Digimon, and the Digimon of her friends. Then she remembered what she had done to do so. She had crept out of her house and lied to her grandma. She knew that Takato would disagree. Thinking of Takato, where was he? Unless his parents had said no, he'd be here by now. Even if they said no, she doubted it'd make any difference; Takato is one of those people who follows and idea through despite it being completely hopeless. Rika chuckled at the thought and blushed slightly. She stared into the hole in the floor. The static noise had begun to drive her insane, and she would've happily gone through the portal now were it not for the risks. She may be stubborn, but she knew that that was far too risky to attempt.

Her D-Arc was removed from her pocket. She looked at the screen, and gladly noticed the lack of static. However, this reminded her of Jeri, and her loss of Leomon. Rika knew that she couldn't live without Rena…well, maybe she could, since she had been for the last few weeks. But knowing that your partner is dead, and that there is no way of getting them back…that struck fear into the heart of Rika, and that was something that took a lot.

Suddenly, she noticed her hair ruffling.

"Oops…" Takato said, realising that his plan had been foiled by the simple fact that a hairband doesn't ping back in the same way as a pair of Goggles. He moved back in fear as Rika stared at him. Staring at Rika with her hair down, he couldn't help but think that she was beautiful. However, his twisted mind didn't let him just think that. "…erm…you look…good…"

**TWACK**

Ah Takato. So much pain he has endured during the course of their adventures. Takato rubbed his cheek as Rika tied up her hair back into its usual ponytail, while blushing bright red, which thankfully for her Takato failed to notice.

"Oww…well, I almost got revenge."

"You'll never best me Takato, and don't even try." Rika replied.

'_Is she…smiling?'_ Takato thought. He shook the idea off.

"So…how long do you think it will be until Henry gets here?" Takato finally asked, as the long silence ended.

"Soon enough hopefully. I hope he managed to convince Hypnos to give us what we need."

They both sat back, side by side against the back wall of the hideout. Nothing was said, since both were in deep thought.

'_This is such an annoying situation. Must…stop…blushing. Must…stop…blushing. Look at me, I'm like a lovestruck idiot. Come on Rika, say something, say something, say something…'_

'_Is Rika…blushing? Nah, must be imagining it again. When will Henry get here, I want to get going. Maybe I should tell Rika about the diary entry…but…we don't have a computer, and I can't exactly go home."_

Takato felt the memory stick in his pocket. He sighed.

"What's that?"

"What's what?"

"You just touched something in your pocket."

"Erm…its nothing…nothing at all."

"Sure it is…" replied Rika. Takato stood up and looked out at the park. Rika smirked, stood up and grabbed Takato with one hand round his chest, blocking his movement of his arms as well. In his surprise, she reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the Memory Stick. She let go of Takato and looked at him with a bemused expression.

"Geez Takato, it's just a memory stick, why's it worth hiding?"

"Erm, no reason…no reason…"

Rika glared at Takato and there was a long silence.

'_Why won't he tell me? What's so significant about the memory stick?'_

'_Come on luck, you owe me…break the silence…break the silence…come on, I need a miracle.'_

Fate has a sick sense of humour.

"Hey Takato"

"Oh, hi Henry" Takato called out to his friend who had arrived. Rika sighed, she wasn't going to get her answer now. "Looking forward to our adven…"

"Young Man, you have some explaining to do." Interrupted Janyuu, who Takato hadn't noticed was with Henry. Takato gulped.

"Why should he?"

'_Huh…was that Rika?'_

"For god's sake, we're just going to get back our Digimon that _you_ let us lose." Rika said angrily. Takato watched Janyuu wince when he heard a mention of what he had done.

"Rika, he's probably just here to help."

"Yeah sure, help us get to the digital world…what kind of fool do you take me for? Mine and Takato's parents have rung you, haven't they?"

Rika glared at Janyuu for a short while.

"I knew it…I'm going" Rika said, before climbing into the hole.

"What?! Rika, don't, please wait…" Takato pleaded. Rika continued relentlessly. A new voice interrupted.

"Honey, please just wait a second"

The voice made Rika stop. She backed out of the hole and looked at the source of the voice, her mother, Rumiko Nonaka.

"Can we just…talk…"

"No…" Rika replied harshly. "…because you don't understand me."

"Rika…please…just…talk to her…" Takato asked, putting his hand on her shoulder. Rika was surprised, she really didn't expect Takato to plead with her like that, and definitely not to put his hand on her shoulder. But, she couldn't drop her composure simply because of that. Rika pushed Takato's hand off her shoulder.

"No, I won't. She'll just tell me no. Regardless, she's never bothered to be there when I want to talk, why should I have to do the opposite?"

Rika turned to directly face her mother.

"I hate you." she said coldly, before diving into the hole and into the portal, much to everyone's shock. Rumiko burst into tears and was comforted by her mother.

"Takato, are you there?" Takato heard a familiar voice call.

"Just wait a second" he heard another voice call.

Mie and Takehiro Matsuki arrived at the scene.

"Mum, Dad, I'm going and that's that. If you don't support me, I'll go it alone."

"You can go Son. We just…wanted to say goodbye, and good luck." said Takehiro.

"Thanks" replied Takato, before hugging his mother and father. "I'll be sure to be careful." He headed towards the hole.

"Wait…please" he heard Seiko say. He turned to face her and Rumiko.

"Please…you've got to promise that she gets back safe and sound, I couldn't stand losing her" Rumiko said while on the edge of tears.

"I promise" replied Takato, before crawling into the hole. There was a flash of light. Henry turned to leave.

"Wait a second, I have something to give you…" said a new voice. Henry turned to face Yamaki. Yamaki held out four identical devices. "We call these Digital Navigators, or D-Navs for short, despite my objection to nicknames. They are based on the Nav you used last time, but they are improved so they should work all the time. They can communicate both with Hypnos here on Earth, and with each other in the Digital World. They also have a tracking screen to keep track of each other."

"Thanks…wait a sec, why are there four?"

"Because I'm coming too" said a new voice. Henry turned to see Ryo Akiyama.

"Oh, hey Ryo. Are you sure that's wise? Rika is already emotional enough, she won't want to see you."

"Well tough. You need someone who knows the Digital World, and I'll be that someone."

"Fine," replied Henry. Ryo dived into the portal.

"Good luck son," said Janyuu. Henry hugged him and then headed into the portal himself.

'_What are we getting ourselves into?' _Henry thought.

TO BE CONTINUED…

* * *

Well, now, after a lot of emotional examination, we're heading into the first arc of this saga. That's not to say that there won't be emotions in the next bit, I'd be crazy not to have them, but there'll also be more action.

Read and review, but constructive only, and again, no criticising my choice of couplings, I'm not going to change it. Also, since I only publish a chapter once the next one is complete, the reviews help a lot to improve what I've already written.

Next time…

How will Rika react when Takato talks to her about what she said to her mother? How will she react to Ryo? Will the D-Navs work? And, most importantly, will they find any of their Digimon?

Find out in 'The New And Reformatted Digital World', Chapter 3 of Dimensions Book One: Links.


	3. The New And Reformatted Digital World

Welcome to Chapter 3. Now, the adventure is finally underway. The shocks of the last chapter will have big repercussions.

DISCLAIMER: Blazing Chaos does not own Digimon, but does own the OCs introduced in this story and later stories.

* * *

**DIMENSIONS**

_**BOOK ONE**_

_Links_

By Blazing Chaos

* * *

**CHAPTER 3**

_The New And Reformatted Digital World  
_

* * *

**DIGITAL PLANE**

**00:45 UTC**

In a strange world, filled with data and strange objects, Takato Matsuki appeared.

'_Right, now, if I remember rightly, we floated in this part of the journ...' _thought Takato, but his thoughts were interrupted when began to plummet.

"Whoa!!" he exclaimed.

"I guess that Rika must have already said which way down was" came a familiar voice. Takato looked to see Henry and Ryo, who somehow caught up with him. "Well, nice to know that things can fall at different speeds in the digital world." Henry joked.

"Yeah…Ryo, where did you come from?"

"I arrived just after you left"

"Are you sure it's such a good idea that you're here? I mean, given Rika is already highly emotional, it may not be a good move."

"I couldn't care less frankly Takato. I'm here to rescue Monodramon, and you guys need someone who knows the digital world like the back of their hand."

"Okay then. Here's the wall between the Digital Plane…"

* * *

**DIGITAL WORLD**

**Lowest Level**

**00:47 UTC**

"…and the digital world. Well, here comes to the ground, hey look, it's Ri…"

Takato was silenced when the three hit the ground. Takato felt pain throughout him, although he knew it was a lot less than he would've felt in the real world. Unfortunately…

**TWACK!!**

Takato rolled to the side. He then realised where he had been. He had landed on top of Rika; hence she had pushed him off.

"Gogglehead, you must have a deathwish by the way you do stuff like that"

Takato noticed that Rika was blushing bright red. Rika noticed that he was doing the same. An uncomfortable silence followed. The lowest level was dark, since it was night-time. Henry recalled that the Digital World ran by Unix Time, since most computers were based on it at least in part, and many servers continued to run it. Unix Time was generally Universal Coordinated Time, hence while Tokyo could be in midday, the Digital World, which was 9 hours behind, would be at three o'clock in the morning. It would be several hours until the day would come, and there would be no transition at all. Henry would have to get back used to it again. He finally decided to get back to conversation.

"So…is this the same place we landed last time or…" Henry said, breaking the silence, but was himself interrupted by:

"Oh great, what is Mr Perfect doing here?" Rika said annoyed.

"I'm here to get Monodramon back, and guide you round the Digital World which I know like the back of my hand."

"Okay then, where are we now?"

Ryo looked around.

"Hmm…oddly, this is unfamiliar…"

"I knew it, you know nothing, you simply talk as if you know everything. Now come on, let's start walking."

"Wait a second…I need to give you all something…" Henry said. He removed his rucksack and Takato stared, eager to find out what this was. Rika simply stared at the floor, angry about that fact that Ryo was here. Ryo, since he already knew of what Henry was to show, lacked interest. "Right, here we are." Henry said, giving each of them an item. Rika simply shrugged it off and stuck it in her pocket. Ryo looked at it for a second, and then placed it away. Takato stared at it with intrigue.

"This is…very similar to the Navigator we had last time." Takato commented.

"Yes, Yamaki calls it a Digital Navigator or D-Nav for short. There's one for each of us. They can send messages to each other and to Hypnos, and they can show the position of each other. They also are a lot more reliable than the old one we had." Henry explained. Takato nodded, and placed it in his pocket.

"So…where to first then Mr Perfect?" Rika added. Ryo simply shrugged.

"I know nothing of where we are."

"Well, where are those city-like rocks we saw before?"

"No sight of them. Perhaps we landed somewhere else?"

"Or maybe you're just useless."

"Look, let's just pick a direction and start walking" Takato said, interrupting the argument between Rika and Ryo. "How about…that way?" Takato added, pointing in a random direction.

"Well, at least till I find my bearings." Ryo stated. He began to walk in the direction that Takato had pointed. Henry soon followed. Takato was about to follow, but he noticed that Rika simply stood staring at the brown sandy 'earth'.

"Um…are you coming?"

Rika looked up out of her trance. She took a long while to speak, but when she spoke she spoke quietly and dismissively. "Leave me alone". She then began to follow the others; Takato then began to follow, and caught up with Rika, walking alongside her.

'_I really need to talk to her. But…what do I talk about? How do I even get her to speak to me? Even when I ask a normal question, she simply blows me off.'_

Takato sighed and looked up to the Earth-orb.

'_Geez, we've been here five minutes and we already are not speaking to each other.'_

* * *

**01:10 UTC**

"How big is this desert?" asked Henry.

"Big?" replied Takato.

"Hmm, I'd have expected to see something by now, something isn't right…"

"Other than the fact that Rika and Ryo aren't talk…waaahh!!"

Takato yelled as he fell flat down on his face. Henry turned to glare at Rika.

"What…I didn't do anything! It's still typical Gogglehead though, tripping over his own feet like that."

"Hmm…I don't think he tripped over his own feet…what's this…" Henry said, bending down. He wiped a small amount of sand away. "It's metal…and…there's another one, and a bit of wood…train tracks?"

"I don't remember there being train tracks in the Digital World before." Ryo added curiously.

"See, you don't know anything. I don't know why you came." Rika added, taking the chance to insult Ryo.

"Actually, I think he's right. I don't remember ever seeing any train tracks or anything of the sort when we were here before." Henry said. "It's very odd" he added, placing his hand on his chin.

"Well, maybe we should wait for a train…" Takato questioned.

"Oh come on Gogglehead, even you shouldn't be that stupid. The tracks have sand on them; they can't have been used in a long while. I mean, I have never even heard of any train-like Digimon…"

"What about Locomon?" Takato questioned. Rika noticed that he had a picture on his D-Arc hologram.

"Huh…how'd you bring up data about a Digimon that we've never seen or heard of before?" Rika questioned.

"Simple, there is one over there." Takato said, pointing down the tracks. A large cloud of dust approached, with a black shape in it.

"Is it friendly?" Henry asked.

"Do you think it'll give us a lift even if it is?" Ryo added.

"Only one way to find out." Takato said enthusiastically. He stood on the tracks and waved his arms. "HEY LOCOMON, STOP!!"

The Locomon coming towards them was shocked. "What on Digital World?! Get out of my way!!" he shouted, as steam hissed out of all of his parts. He slowly slowed. Takato stared into the headlights of the train, mesmerised by it.

"FOR GOD'S SAKE TAKATO, MOVE!!" Rika shouted. She jumped and pushed him out of the way. They hit the deck as the train screamed past behind them. The Locomon finally came to a stop.

"Is everyone okay? Did I hit someone?!" the Locomon asked.

"Takato, you must have a freaking deathwish!!" Rika yelled. Takato simply stared back into her eyes. He then fainted onto Rika's lap. "What are you doing? Wake up!" Rika groaned.

"Hey, is everyone okay?" asked Henry, as he and Ryo walked round the rear of the train and looked at Rika and Takato in their strange position.

"Yeah…." Rika called back.

"Oh, we'll leave you two alone." Ryo joked, grinning.

"If Takato hadn't luckily, for you, fainted on my lap, I would beat you senseless Ryo."

"Interesting…"

"What is?"

"You called him Takato."

Rika stood up and Takato fell off her lap, but he continued his unconsciousness. Rika balled her hands into fists and slowly and menacingly walked towards Ryo. Ryo continued his normal expression, and Henry looked worried. He prepared to get out of the way should anything happen. Thankfully, someone was to interrupt.

"Hey, do you guys want a lift?" Locomon asked.

"Yeah, that'd be great." Henry replied. Rika simply grunted and turned away. She grabbed Takato's hand and dragged him up the steps onto the train, purposefully letting him slam his head on each step.

"Hmm, watch her drag him like a rag-doll…" Ryo commented. Henry turned to him.

"You know, sometimes I think you have a deathwish." Henry replied. Ryo simply shrugged and walked up the steps onto the train, with Henry soon following. Looking into the carriage, they saw that Rika had stuck Takato on one of the long seats, and was now slumped against the wall lying on the parallel seats on the other side. Seeing Ryo enter the carriage, she glared at him. He sat down on the next set of seats and turned to lie down, and she stood up, walking through the door into the next carriage. Henry sat opposite Ryo and sighed. The train creaked into motion.

"May as well try to get some sleep." Henry whispered, before turning to lie down along the seat.

* * *

**05:01 UTC**

Takato awoke with a start. He looked around and noticed that he was on a moving train. Looking down the dark dimly lit carriage, he saw Henry and Ryo lying down on different seats. However, he noticed no sign of Rika. Standing up and yawning, walked to the door and slid down the window. Looking out of the carriage, he saw miles of desert pass by quickly beneath their carriage as smoke rose into the sky above them. He sighed. Turning to face the other way, he noticed that there was one more carriage on the train. An idea occurred to him, and he turned around. He walked through the carriage end door and saw Rika lying there on the seat, asleep. He sat down beyond her head at the end of the seat, and looked at the floor.

'_This has been an awful day. First both me and Rika sneak out of our houses despite our parents' wishes, then Rika tells her mother that she hates her, then she argues with Ryo, and then she saves my life from one of my silly ideas. I really am a doofus.'_

Takato turned to stare at Rika's face. A small smile appeared on his face, and a strange thought occurred to him.

'_She's really beautiful when she sleeps.'_ he thought. He then shook his head, dismissing the idea. Rika suddenly woke with a start.

"Renamon?"

"Huh…no, just Gogglehead."

Rika moaned. Then, a thought occurred to her.

"Were you…watching me sleep?"

"Um…no…"

"You're in love with me aren't you loverboy?"

"No, of course not."

Takato was sure he saw Rika frown, but he simply dismissed it as a trick of the limited light. There was a long silence.

"Look, if you expect me to talk to you about my problems, you're really speaking to the wrong person." Rika finally said.

"Uh…huh. I just thought…"

"Don't 'just think'. Look Takato, I'm not going to talk to you, just leave me alone."

"Fine." Takato said, standing up. "Thanks for saving my life" he said matter-of-factly as he walked away through the carriage to the end door. He turned back to Rika. "Oh, and you just called me Takato."

Rika lightly smiled. Takato opened the door and walked through. Rika closed her eyes and thought. Suddenly, she realised something…

"Hold on…this is the last carriage…TAKATO!!"

She stood up quickly and ran to the end of the carriage. She opened the door and looked out from the 'balcony'.

"TAKATO!!" she yelled into the night.

"Down here," said Takato, leaning up against the bars on the side of the balcony. "The door closed and I couldn't open it, so I sat down here to wait to see if anyone would come."

Rika nodded. She turned to see the door close behind her and sighed. "Looks like I'm stuck here too." Rika said, as she leaned against the other side of the balcony on the bars. "Move your feet" she added, trying to make the most of the space available.

* * *

**05:30 UTC**

"Can't sleep can you?" Rika asked.

"Not a wink." Takato replied. "Want to talk?"

"Nice try."

"Oh come on, why do you fear your emotions so much?"

"I…don't know what you are talking about…"

"I can see through this…persona, Rika. I know of your problems, and I want to help."

"But you can't Takato, not with all my problems…some I can't even tell you…"

"But at least let me help you with some of them."

"My mother made you promise that I'd get back safe and sound, didn't she?"

"How did you know?"

"You just told me," Rika said grinning.

"Oh…" Takato said, slightly confused. Rika continued to smile.

"Okay then, I'll talk. It'll be good to get some things off my chest…" she said, placing her hand on her chest, which Takato's eyes followed. Rika grinned, before adding. "Pervert."

"What?" Takato said, in surprise. He stumbled backwards.

"Careful Takato, that ground is moving very fast." Rika said smiling, as she began to talk. Well, she would have.

"Just to note, you keep using my real name."

"Shut up…anyway, where to start…oh, and Takato, this _doesn't_ leave this balcony-thing, got it?"

"Okay"

Rika stared at the earth-orb for a few seconds. Then she began.

"My father left me and my mother when I was 3 years old. I never really understood why. I would always hear them arguing every night, and my Grandma would always need to intervene. Perhaps…perhaps he was too old for her…my mother had me when she was only 17. The thing is, I hate my father for leaving, and I hate my mother for making him leave. It actually seems worse than Jeri's situation, heartless saying that as it may seem. Jeri at least feels that her mother is watching down on her as-was. I have to face the reality that, even if I could find my father, he'd probably just reject me…I mean, he could even be dead and we wouldn't know…"

Rika's head drooped and she stared at the ground rushing by below.

"When was the last time you had any communication with your father?"

"About seven years ago. We just happened to bump into him in a supermarket. But…there was very little talking, and I knew that without me and Seiko there, both of them would be at each others throats. But I do know that he had a new girlfriend. But…Rumiko isn't innocent in the matter. For practically all my childhood, I watched her bring home boyfriend after boyfriend, all more handsome than the last. The longest one ever stayed was for a week. She also seemed to want to pursue her career more, she ended up having long trips away from us and overnight modelling shoots. But…I had just…stopped caring by then."

Takato sat and took in Rika's every word, and its impact. Both of them sighed.

"Did you ever talk to anyone else about this?"

"Yeah, I spoke to Renamon." Rika sighed again, as the name of her partner came to mind. "It'll be good to see her again I guess."

Takato, given his highly friendly relationship with Guilmon, was surprised at Rika's unsureness of her bond with her partner.

'_But…I suppose they have a bond that goes beyond words. I guess we all do. I mean, Guilmon may act silly but, when I need him to be serious, he does, and he's also thought up some pretty smart stuff that completely skipped our minds. And Henry and Terriermon go without saying. There's Henry to rein in Terriermon's dangerous quick-wit and Terriermon to ignore him.'_ Takato smiled as he recalled the happy memories. He then looked at Rika. _'Maybe…maybe if I could find something good in her memories to reassure her…'_"Do you have any good memories of your father?"

"Well…when I was…when I was a kid…I remember him pushing me on the swings, and me sing…erm…just him pushing me on the swings."

"Were you about to say singing?" Takato said, eyes widening.

"Um…no, what makes you think that?"

"Do you sing?" Takato asked in a surprised tone.

"…yes…but for no-one but myself…"

"Why don't you sing to cheer yourself up then?"

"Because it wouldn't help. Look, Takato, there are some things…some things that I just can't tell you, some things that are too deep, and some that would affect our relationship."

Takato saw through those words. The words of the letter flashed through his mind and his eyes widened.

"_**You see, I seem to suddenly have feelings for…him. He may be a total doofus and a walking disaster but…I like him…a lot."**_

'_It's true…I thought that it may have been something else that I was missing…but…it's true…and, the question is…the question is…do I feel the same about her?'_ Takato thought. He fingered the memory stick in his pocket and stared at her. Rika had gone into a trance, staring at the continuous rails with the sleepers crossing them and together their mesmerising repetitive pattern. Takato stared at her, and saw through her persona, to a helpless girl who has no-one to talk to about her problems and simply bottles them up. He began to understand why she acted as she acted. If she has no-one to talk to about her problems, then she refuses to talk to anyone about theirs. Takato set the memory stick down in his pocket and settled down to sleep.

'_It's not like I have any way of showing her it anyway, let alone explaining it, and the fact that she'd probably hate me for the rest of time.'_

"Takato…thanks…I guess…" Rika eventually said.

"No problem…I always like helping friends…"

Both closed their eyes.

'_Friends…' _Rika thought to herself as she slipped off to sleep.

TO BE CONTINUED...

* * *

Well, this chapter covered a bit less than I had planned, but it worked quite well in my opinion. A bit of action in it, but dominated by character development.

Please read and review, it'll help me know where I'm going wrong and where I'm doing well, well, if it's constructive that is.

Next time…

Will they find any of their Digimon partners? What's up with the Digital World? And most importantly…does Takato feel the same about Rika?

Find out in 'Rabbit Reunion', Chapter 4 of Dimensions Book One: Links.


	4. Rabbit Reunion

Welcome to Chapter 4. There will finally be some action in this chapter, so it should be an interesting turn of events. There will be some more Rukato, although it is put on the back-burner towards the end of the chapter. For Rukato fans, the next chapter will be far better, but there will be an even better one coming up later.

DISCLAIMER: Blazing Chaos does not own Digimon, but does own the OCs introduced in this story and later stories.

* * *

**DIMENSIONS**

_**BOOK ONE**_

_Links_

By Blazing Chaos

* * *

**CHAPTER 4**

_Rabbit Reunion  
_

* * *

**DIGITAL WORLD**

**Lowest Level**

**06:59 UTC**

Rika and Takato continued to sleep on the balcony as the Locomon roared through the desert. Suddenly, the darkness turned to light and as the light shone on their eyelids.

"What the hell?" they chorused, their voices still full of tiredness. They soon realised where they were. Rika stood up groggily and tried to walk around.

"Right, I'm getting off of this balcony." Rika said, as she fully woke up, and made a decision that would solve their problem once and for all.

She began to kick the door. After several successively stronger kicks, each of which answered by a resounding crack but none of which had any effect, she grabbed the handle and tried to open it.

"Erm…Rika…" Takato said, trying to get her attention. Rika gave up with the handle and simply began trying to knock the door in by whatever means necessary. Unfortunately, the door, now looking worse for wear, continued to withstand the attacks.

"Shut up Gogglehead, I'm going to kick this door down."

"But Rika…!"

"I said shut it. Geez, this door must be designed to withstand mega-level Digimon attacks or something…"

"RIKA, GRAB MY HAND!!"

"What?!"

Takato said no more. He simply grabbed Rika's hand with one arm, which she resisted to at first, the railing with the other and held on tight to both. A huge wall of what looked like a blurry greenish liquid expanding across the level hit the train and Takato felt a force pull on both arms as it tried to drag him and Rika out of the balcony.

* * *

**Forest Level**

**07:01 UTC**

Takato continued to hold on tight as the world around them turned into a greenish liquid, wavering all over the place. Takato shut his eyes to avoid any more fear of their current situation.

"Don't let go!" he yelled to Rika, as he felt her grip loosen. He presumed that she had grabbed the railing with her free hand.

"But Takato!"

"No buts!"

"But..."

"Just hold on!"

"TAKATO, WE'RE OUT OF THE LIQUID THING, LET GO OF MY HAND AND OPEN YOUR GODDAMM EYES!!" Rika yelled, the sound echoing. Takato let go simply in fear and opened his eyes. They had entered a thick forest. The lines ran through a clearing in the trees and he could see various clearings around them. He saw a few Digimon in the skies, a Devidramon, an Aerodramon, and on the ground he saw Digimon such as Bakamon, Ogremon, and Neemon.

"Hey…what is this place?" Takato questioned.

"How should I know?" Rika replied annoyed, both at his question and at his idiocy a few seconds ago. "Probably some forest-thing, you'll have to ask Mr Perfect for his _expert_ opinion." Rika said sarcastically.

Suddenly, the brakes screeched on and Rika and Takato went flying into the air. They crashed through the door and skidded along the floor of the carriage, coming to a stop in a familiar, yet highly dangerous position.

"Takato…get off me or die." Rika menacingly said. She cupped her hands into fists. However, despite all this, she couldn't stop blushing.

Takato rolled to the side and off of Rika.

'_I hate my luck just as much as she is going to hate me now.' _he thought to himself.

'_Yeah, I definitely am destiny's play toy.' _Rika thought simultaneously.(A/N: Christ, there is a helluva lot of irony in that, but you'd need to be reading…well, the last book to get it, since it's a big secret that relies on other similarly big secrets and I'm not spoiling it for anyone.)

"FOREST LEVEL, END OF THE LINE" Locomon shouted, as the noise boomed down the carriage. "ALL DISEMBARK, ALL DISEMBARK"

A silent Rika and Takato, both blushing, exited the train by the nearest door and jumped down to the floor. There was a thick forest here with a cutting that served as a path. Various Digimon could be seen crossing the cutting, but none of them were big enough to pose a threat. They saw Henry and Ryo standing around waiting for them.

"Did you two have a good night?" Ryo teased, noticing their blushing. Takato blushed more and scratched the back of his head.

"Go to hell Ryo" was Rika's response.

'_I can only imagine what Terriermon would say. He'd never let them live it down.' _"So…where are we? Any ideas Ryo?" Henry asked.

"Nope...the digital world seems to have completely changed since we were last here…like…it's been reformatted or something." replied the Legendary Tamer.

"Maybe you're just useless. Now, let's head into this forest, there seems to be a path this way and all this talk is boring me." Rika said, before walking along the path through the forest. The rest of the group soon followed, and Locomon continued on his journey (despite the fact he had said that it was the end of the line). After a few minutes of uncomfortable walking, the group heard a loud roar. After looking around for the source, they saw nothing, and continued on, only more cautiously this time.

"We still don't have any way of protecting ourselves. I'm surprised we haven't been attacked yet." Henry commented.

"Yeah, it's strange." Ryo added.

"Well, I don't know, but I get the feeling someone is following us." Takato said suspiciously. A branch creaked nearby and he stopped in his tracks, as did the others. "What was that?"

A Hawkmon flew out of the tree nearby and into the sky. Takato leapt in surprise.

"See, you're just crazy Tak…Gogglehead. Now, let's get going." Rika replied annoyingly, apparently completely unfazed, before continuing on along with the rest of them.

"Hmm…" Henry wondered, thinking about both what could be following them and also that Rika planned to say Takato's real name as opposed to her nickname for him. _'Come to think of it, she hasn't called him Gogglehead much at all while we've been here…something strange is going on here.'_ A curious thought crept onto his subconscious, but he shook it off and continued walking.

"I wasn't imagining things!" Takato said angrily, seeing Henry's shaking of his head.

"Sure you weren't." said Ryo sarcastically.

"I really wasn't. I heard something like a footstep…a big one at that. And what about that roar?"

Suddenly, the ground shook and Takato fell to the ground…on top of our favourite redhead, who pushed him off her.

"For godsake Takato what the hell is with you today?" Rika said whilst blushing. Takato was completely ignoring her, instead turning back and quivering in fear. Ryo was the first to shout.

"RUN!!"

Henry and Ryo began to run at full pace. Rika got up and started to follow, but noticed Takato still hadn't moved. The Tyrannomon that glared at him winced slightly, and stepped back. Unbeknownst to Rika, Takato's eyes glowed a menacing red. She grabbed his arm but felt an electric-like shock. Takato winced in pain at the same time as Rika and she pulled him to his feet. They both began to run.

"What the hell happened there? You must really have a deathwish." Rika yelled at Takato angrily. "Both in shocking me and in just sitting there. How'd you do the first one anyway?"

"I'm…not sure…I…think…I…just…phased out…" Takato replied while panting for breath.

"And the shocking?"

"No…idea"

"God…you…are…crazy." Rika replied, as she began to pant for breath herself.

The Tyrannomon had yet to follow. Suddenly, cracks appeared in it and it splintered into data. The data began to float away, but suddenly each individual piece was eliminated by an odd red force. Silence fell on the forest again.

* * *

**07:12**

"I think we lost him." Henry said as Takato and Rika caught up. Rika nodded and turned to Takato, while still facing Henry. "Bloody close though, all thanks to Blank-out McGoggles here…" Rika said, gesturing to Takato.

"Hey, I didn't blank out." Takato replied annoyed.

"Well then what happened, huh? Too busy planning when you can fall on top of me again Loverboy?"

"No, I wasn't…"

"So what was it then?"

"Um…" Takato said, staring at Rika whilst deep in thought and biting his lip. A few seconds later, he replied. "Can I get back to you on that?"

"Can you two just stop bickering!" Henry interrupted, as Rika was about to speak.

Rika replaced her reply with a simple "Humph".

"Which way now?" Henry asked.

"Hmm…well, I'd say any way but that way" replied Takato, pointing down a clearing in the forest. A red and green mass of individual dinosaur-like beings headed towards them at a fast pace. They continued to watch.

"There must be at least a dozen Tyrannomon." Henry added in shock as he recognised the shapes.

"Hey, what's that?" Takato added, pointing towards a blue and yellow dragon, a white and green bunny-dog and a pink floating thing heading towards them.

"Terriermon!" Henry shouted. Terriermon leapt into his arms, and then leapt onto his head from there.

"Yay, I don't have to run any more, I have my own personal slave to do so. Now yeesh horsey!" Terriermon joked, pulling tight on Henry's hair.

"Terriermon!"

"I missed this." Terriermon replied grinning happily.

"Good to see ya Monodramon" said Ryo to his aforementioned partner, who nodded.

"Pi Pi" MarineAngemon said in a sad tone.

"Don't worry, when we get back home you'll get to see Kenta again." Takato said to reassure the pink…erm…floating thing.

"Pi Pi" MarineAngemon replied, more happily this time.

"Let's drop the reunion and run, okay?" Rika panicked.

"Okay, I agree with that," Takato said, and they started to run in the opposite direction, Terriermon on Henry's shoulder. A fireball burst over their heads and they ducked.

"Why the hell are they after you three anyway?" Ryo asked his partner.

"Yeah, what the hell did you do to piss them off?" Rika added.

"Well, the cream and green foodball here decided to steal their chocolate milkshakes." Monodramon replied.

"Hey, we told them that there were plenty more in that Chocolate Milkshake fountain."

Takato looked at Rika with wide eyes, and she returned the look.

"Yep, the Digital World is insane." Takato joked

* * *

**06:15**

"Erm, Henry…stop a second will ya…" Terriermon told his partner.

"No, we can't, we have to keep running or they'll catch up with us" replied Henry.

"But why don't we just fight them?"

"Why on earth didn't we think of that beforehand?" Takato asked Rika.

"Because there are more than a dozen of them?" Henry replied to Terriermon's question.

"Yeah, it's suicide." Rika noted back.

"So? We can go Ultimate, Mega if we have to."

"Good point. Okay!" Henry said turning round, as the rest stopped and did the same. Henry summoned a blue card.

"Now that's more like it!" Terriermon shouted. As he leapt off of Henry's head and into the air.

"**DIGI-MODIFY…**

**Matrix Digivolution Activate"**

**MATRIX DIGIVOLUTION**

"**TERRIERMON DIGIVOLVE TO…**

**RAPIDMON"**

"Take this you red T-Rex wannabees!!" the large twin-winged green metallic ultimate known as Rapidmon shouted as he flew into the air. "RAPID FIRE!!"

A series of missiles hit one of the Tyrannomon. It vaporised into data, which was absorbed by the rest of the Tyrannomon.

"One down…13 to go."

"Our turn Ryo" said Ryo's partner Monodramon. Ryo nodded and drew a blue card out of his deck.

"**DIGI-MODIFY…**

**Matrix Digivolution Activate"**

**M****ATRIX DIGIVOLUTION**

"**MONODRAMON DIGIVOLVE TO…**

**CYBERDRAMON"**

"DESOLATION CLAW" shouted the newly formed gray and red bipedal beast. Beams of energy destroyed two more Tyrannomon, but the group of dinosaurs' mouths glowed.

"BLAZE BLAST" chorused the remaining Tyrannomon. 33 blasts of flame ripped through the air towards the group of humans and Digimon.

"Going up!" Rapidmon said, grabbing his Tamer and flying into the air. Cyberdramon grunted and grabbed Ryo, before doing the same action as Rapidmon. MarineAngemon protected Rika and Takato with heart-shaped bubbles, but they still shielded their eyes. After the attacks passed, much of the forest around and behind them had been scorched away. Cyberdramon and Rapidmon landed and set down their respective partners. MarineAngemon's bubbles faded away.

"Look at the destruction!" Henry said, staring at the scared earth and burning woods.

Takato turned to Rika. "We're just sitting ducks here. We need to find our partners." Rika nodded. Takato turned to the green robot floating above him. "Hey Rapidmon, any idea where the rest of our Digimon are?"

"Nope, we all got separated by data streams" he replied, in response to which Rika looked glum. Takato pulled out his D-Arc and brought up the compass.

"Well, there's some hope, this thing says that Guilmon is this way. Hey Henry, once you're finished battling, head this way to meet up with us, okay?"

"Ok" replied the blue-haired Tamer, before turning back to the battle.

"Right, MarineAngemon, come with us" said Takato to the pink blob, who replied with his normal extensive vocabulary.

"Pi Pi"

"We'll take that as a yes" Rika added. They then headed in the direction of Takato's compass. Rika, while running, pulled out her D-Arc and switched to the compass. It showed nothing.

'_Oh Renamon, where are you?'_

Meanwhile, a short distance behind them.

"Right, Henry, I need a power upgrade." Rapidmon ordered.

"Hey, I thought I was the Tamer."

"Momentai" Rapidmon replied, and Henry smiled.

"I missed that."

"**DIGI-MODIFY…**

**Power**** Activate"**

"THIS IS MORE LIKE IT!! TRI BEAM" Rapidmon shouted, as he took out three of the Tyrannomon with a blast of green light. One of the Tyrannomon fell back. Cyberdramon dived forward and sunk his claws into the Tyranomon, breaking it into data.

"Okay, that leaves just seven."

"Easy!" yelled Rapidmon, as he took aim. "RAPID…"

"CYBER NAIL" interrupted Cyberdramon, as he crashed his nail through four of them. They burst into data.

"Ryo, I think Cyberdramon is out of control. This just feels like killing in cold blood." Henry commented.

"It is the way of the southern quadrant. But, I suppose Cyberdramon is out of control." Ryo replied, before using his D-Arc as a restraining device. "CYBERDRAMON, BACK OFF." His partner roared and reluctantly stepped back. Suddenly, the three remaining Tyranomon absorbed the data of their counterparts.

"They're digivolving!" Henry said in alarm.

"**TYRANNOMON DIGIVOLVE TO MASTERTYRANNOMON"**

Three larger black and green dinosaurs, covered in scars, replaced the Tyrannomon.

"Let's see…MasterTyrannomon, Vaccine Type, Ultimate Level, attacks are Master Fire and Master Claw" Ryo said, staring at the holographic screen of his D-Arc.

"It just got interesting!" Rapidmon yelled, preparing his guns to fire.

"Rapidmon, back down" said Henry coolly, eliciting a cry of annoyance from his partner.

"Oh come on…"

"No, I can't stand killing in cold blood like this."

Cyberdramon leapt forward to attack.

"It's them or us Henry…" Rapidmon told his Tamer.

"MASTER CLAW!!" shouted the three MasterTyrannomon.

"Why should it be? Why are we right to kill like this?" Henry replied, questioning his partner's morals.

Cyberdramon slid across the battlefield to a stop, before breaking down into Monodramon. The three MasterTyrannomon turned to face Henry, while Ryo ran across to his partner.

"Monodramon, are you okay?"

"I think so…god, this hurts, I won't be able to fight in this battle any longer" the Blue Dinosaur replied.

"You did your best" his partner complimented. "But try to control your anger next time."

"MASTER FLAME" chorused the MasterTyrannomon aiming for Henry. Time slowed for Henry as he stared at the intense blast of flame heading straight for him, and he was powerless to move.

"HENRY!!" yelled Rapidmon as he threw himself in the way of the blast. He was thrown to the ground, where he rolled to a stop. His armour was cracked, and his data was unstable. He was burnt all over. Henry ran over to his partner.

"RAPIDMON!!"

He bent down to pick up Terriermon, who had dedigivolved and was now covered in scratches, and held him in his arms.

"I'm sorry Terriermon…I'm so sorry. I just…didn't want to see anyone get hurt." Henry said emotionally, holding back the tears.

"Momentai Henry. I understand. Don't cry." Terriermon said, trying to comfort his tamer.

"But…I nearly lost you…and we've lost now Terriermon." Henry said, hugging his partner tighter.

"Christ, we didn't hurt you did we?" came an odd voice. Henry and Terriermon looked up to see one of the MasterTyrannomon.

"Well duh, what did it look like" replied Terriermon sarcastically.

"We are so sorry. We only wanted our milkshakes back" apologised the MasterTyrannomon.

"But Terriermon said there was a fountain…Terriermon…" Henry said curiously.

"Heh…you can't blame a mon for trying" replied the aforementioned Digimon. "Okay, I hid it in the woods over there, by that big tree. The one right at the back" he added, gesturing with his short paw.

"Cheers…we appreciate it" replied the MasterTyrannomon as they walked away as a group. Ryo and Monodramon joined the other pair of Tamer and Partner.

"O…kay…" said Monodramon, confused as to what had just happened.

"You said it buddy" added Ryo, who was just as confused.

"Right, now Henry, run!" said the green dog-bunny, jumping out of Henry's arms, acting as if healed (although not looking like he was) and pointing in the opposite direction to the way the MasterTyrannomon went.

"What…why?"

"Because I lied about where I hid the milkshakes…" Terriermon said grinning as he pulled a milkshake in a fast food style cup with a straw out of 'hammer space'. (A/N: In other words, out of nowhere.)

"Terriermon!" Henry said annoyed as the group began to run, Henry grabbing Terriermon by the ear.

"Momentai!" Terriermon said, using his all-to familiar catchphrase as he flipped his way onto Henry's shoulder.

"Where did the Tyrannomon even get their hands on those things here in the Digital World?" quizzed Ryo.

"They grow on trees" replied his partner.

"Funny…now, where do they actually come from?"

"I wasn't joking" replied the blue dinosaur.

"This place sure is strange" commented Henry.

"You said it!" replied his partner.

TO BE CONTINUED...

* * *

Well, one battle later and they are already separated. Read and review (constructively) please, it really helps me know where I'm going well and where I need to improve my writing, and I appreciate every (useful) one.

Next time…

Will Rika find Renamon, and Takato Guilmon, along with the rest of the Digimon? Will Ryo and Henry catch up with them? Will the other Tamers back home realise that four of their members have gone to the Digital World and left them behind? And most importantly, what are these strange powers that Takato seems to have?

Find out next time in 'The Mon Who Didn't Cry Help', Chapter 5 of Dimensions Book One: Links.


	5. The Mon Who Didn't Cry Help

Welcome to Chapter 5. There will be more action in this chapter, along with some more emotional stuff, particularly towards the end, so it should be an interesting turn of events. There will also be a lot more character development between a lot more characters.

DISCLAIMER: Blazing Chaos does not own Digimon, but does own the OCs introduced in this story and later stories.

* * *

**DIMENSIONS**

_**BOOK ONE**_

_Links_

By Blazing Chaos

* * *

**CHAPTER 5**

_The Mon Who Didn't Cry Help  
_

* * *

**Mountain Level**

**07:56 UTC**

Takato and Rika had walked to the next level above the forest level. On this level, there was a huge mountain that dominated all views of the area, surrounded by patches of woodland and lakes. The mountain was high and rather steep, and on the top third it was covered in snow. A path had been cut by many Digimon through the area, which the two, along with MarineAngemon, now transversed. MarineAngemon looked around vigilantly for Digimon that could be a threat. Takato and Rika had hardly spoken since they had left the battle. But they were both deep in thought.

'_I bet they planned this out to taunt me, having me and Takato alone. Either that or destiny hates me. God, I hated fleeing that battle, I rarely have to do so and I'd rather not have to do so again if I could but…what could I do? Without Renamon with me I'm useless.'_ Rika thought.

'_Hmm, long awkward silence. Still, I'm looking forward to seeing Guilmon again. I'm glad I can fulfil my promise to him. I hope he's okay.' _Takato thought at the same time.

The two of them reached one of the lakes that could be found in the area. Takato stared out at the bright blue water and sighed.

"Okay, I'm pooped, I'm resting here for a while" Takato said, before falling back to lie on the ground alongside the lake.

"Hmm…how often do you see a bright blue lake, nay, bright blue water, in the real world?" Rika questioned while still standing up.

"What about Okinawa?"

"I'll give you that one," Rika replied, agreeing with him and smiling, although only slightly, and not enough for someone not looking specifically to notice.

Something watched them from nearby.

Rika picked up and skipped a rock across the lake, before she sat down next to Takato and stared across the lake. She kept an eye on a Seadramon that surfaced from time to time, although it seemed to lack any interest in the pair and their Digimon companion. After a while, Takato sat up. He pulled out his D-Arc and switched to the compass.

The thing approached them, increasing in pace rapidly.

"Hmm, that's strange…it says that Guilmon is off to the right. Odd, we've been following it in a straight line so far, why would it change n…waaah!"

The creature pounced. Takato was thrown back and towards the lake. On him sat a large red dinosaur with black markings and a white chest with a hazard symbol on it. It had bat like ears and sharp gray claws.

"TAKATOMON!!" the creature said happily. Takatomon…sorry, Takato, took a while to notice who it was.

"Guilmon! I missed you so much." Takato said, pulling his partner into a bear hug.

"Same, I thought that Takatomon wouldn't keep his promise."

"Yeah, lucky for you that I found that portal."

Tamer and partner hugged each other for a few seconds longer, but to them it felt like an age. Rika watched on with a look of sorrow.

'_As normal, everyone else is always happy but me.'_

"It's okay everyone, you can come out now" yelled Guilmon to the bushes.

"Ya don't say Pineapple Head. Now really, did you think we were that stupid, huh?" replied a small purple imp with a red bandana.

"Did you really think we were that stupid, huh?" echoed a large rust coloured robot.

"Hey, get yure own lines bub" angrily the purple imp replied, as he whacked the rust coloured robot called Guardromon which caused a slight clanging noise. They then walked (and hovered) towards the group by the lakeside. Takato smiled, glad that they were safe. Rika, on the other hand, continued to stare on glumly.

'_Where's Renamon? We've seen everyone else but her, I hope she's okay…"_Rika thought, as a frown formed on her face. Suddenly, she heard footsteps behind her and turned round, a pang of fear at the back of her mind…

"ESKIMO KISSES!!"

…which was quickly erased when a small white…thing…with big ears leapt up and Eskimo kissed her on the face.

"Get off Calumon" Rika said, but happily rather than angrily, as her concern for Renamon evaporated, albeit only temporarily. Takato smiled; glad to see Rika happy for the first time in days.

"I never thought I'd see you guys again." Calumon said, finally stopping the kisses but now resorting to smiling, dancing and laughing.

"Yeah, me neither" said Impmon, quietly embarrassed by the antics of his fellow Digimon, antics that he would've once actively mocked. However, he had changed since those early days. A frown crept onto his face. Suddenly, a strange oddity dawned on him. "Hey, watchappened to the rest of the guys and gals?" he added curiously, turning back to Takato.

"Well, Henry and Ryo are a way back fighting a horde of Tyrannomon and the rest are back on earth" Takato replied.

"What, they couldn't be bothered to come get us personally?"

"More like we couldn't be bothered to tell them actually…" Takato replied, scratching the back of his head. "Well, it was hard enough trying to get our parents to let us come here without another 6 of us complicating matters, plus we would've been an even bigger target…"

Impmon grinned and turned to Rika. "Be honest will ya. You just didn't want them around to annoy you, capiche?"

Rika simply humph'ed and turned to face the lake. Takato, confused by the odd back and forth between the two but not wanting to ask about it, decided to change the subject.

"Well, we should start heading…"

Takato was stopped by a loud roar and a shake of the earth, to which recent experience had told him to keep his footing, thus avoiding another embarrassing situation. He turned to the source of the noise, a large greyish dinosaur with three heads, the extra two of which were mounted on his hands and were a metal one and a skull one respectively, and held up his D-Arc.

"Wow, big one. Deltamon, Virus Type, Champion Level, attacks are Triple Force and Serpent Bite." he quoted from the holograph. "Ready Guilmon?"

Guilmon nodded. "Yeah!"

"**DIGI-MODIFY…**

**Digivolution Activate"**

**DIGIVOLUTION**

"**Guilmon digivolve to…**

**Growlmon"**

A huge bipedal dragon that looked like a larger version of Guilmon, with a mane of hair down the back of his head and sharp scythes sticking out of the side of his claws, now stood in front of the group.

"TRIPLE FORCE" shouted Deltamon. The three mouths glowed and out was fired a triple blast of energy, which combined into a single blast.

"Growlmon, slash it"

"Right…DRAGON SLASH!"

The Deltamon's attack was sliced in two. Energy went by both sides of Growlmon and the group he was with ducked quickly to avoid decapitation, Takato covering his eyes with his arm. When the attack had passed, he removed his arm.

"Careful Growlmon, you almost hit us."

"Sorry…I need peanut butter to work properly"

Takato sweatdropped, and encouraged his partner. "You can have plenty when we get back home."

"Yay, I like peanut butter, especially on Guilmon bread. Yay, Guilmon bread shapped like my…aaargghh"

"SERPENT BITE" Deltamon roared and sunk his jaws into Growlmon's arm. Growlmon screamed in pain.

"Growlmon, no!" Takato yelled alarmed, as his eyes flashed red for a split second, which no-one noticed. "**DIGI-MODIFY, POWER ACTIVATE**"

'_What is Takato doing, power won't help here…Growlmon needs to escape, not blow himself up with it…"_ thought Rika.

"PYRO…BLASTER" Growlmon yelled. The attack missed completely and hit the lake, fizzling a large portion of the water and attracting the attention of the Seadramon.

"GROWLMON, TAKE HIM DOWN" Takato yelled angrily. Growlmon's hazard flashed red and he ripped off Deltamon's third head.

"DRAGON SLASH" he roared, slashing down through Deltamon's exposed wound. Deltamon burst into data in pain, which Growlmon absorbed. Growlmon dedigivolved. Takato blinked for a second, and then his eyes opened again, a lot calmer than before. Rika observed this and noted it as odd, although she wouldn't know the significance until later.

"We did it Guilmon!" Takato happily yelled. "The old team is back together!" The group began to celebrate, except for Rika, who sighed and turned. She began to walk away.

"Where are you going Rika?" Takato asked.

"To find Renamon…alone, you losers couldn't find your socks in a pile of your two socks…" Rika replied.

"I'll come with!" Calumon said, happy as usual, leaping onto Rika's shoulder. Rika turned away. Takato made a quick decision.

"Rika…STOP RIGHT NOW!!" yelled Takato angrily.

Rika stopped and turned around, surprised at Takato's outburst.

"You are not going to act like this. This is the old Rika, the one who was mean to everyone, the one who everyone was scared of, the girl who wouldn't accept help…"

"And the one who everyone still thinks I am." Rika continued, before walking away again, much to Takato and the others shock. Takato turned to the Digimon.

"Wait here for Ryo and Henry to reach you, and then get them to follow. Guilmon, come with me" he ordered, before following quickly after Rika.

"Just what happened while we were away?" Impmon asked the others while they all watched the pair walk away.

* * *

**DIGITAL PLANE**

**Unknown Time**

Its consciousness blazed into life. This was the first surprising thing for it, since it was something it never thought possible.

The beast turned to look at its current realm. It was very blank, the occasional data moving about, along with a few odd red streaks which seemed to die out after a while. It pondered its situation and how it got to be in its current state despite that.

It searched for an exit.

* * *

**REAL WORLD**

**Playground, Shinjuku Park**

**17:00 JST**

The first clue for Kenta that something was up was the silence of the place. The dinosaur was virtually silent, no taunting, no nothing. Normally he would assume that his friends who he normally played cards with were absent, but he had already seen Kazu go in there, and he presumed Takato had done the same. He arrived at the dinosaur and looked up into the inside at the raised area above, where Kazu now sat.

"Stupid Takato, first he doesn't turn up at school, then he doesn't turn up here…I wanted to get revenge for his win the other day." Kazu moaned.

"I could play you?" Kenta asked.

"No fun, I've beat you hundreds of times."

"Yeah, but…I might get lucky…"

"Yeah right, and Takato is going to go on a date with Rika…both will happen when hell freezes over."

"Well, maybe we should go find Takato, he should be at his house.

"Yeah, maybe I can catch his illness and avoid Mrs Asagi for a week or two" Kazu joked, and they both headed in the direction of Takato's bakery.

* * *

**REAL WORLD**

**Tokyo Metropolitan Building, Digital Monster Control and Prevention Department, Hypnos**

**17:03 JST**

Today, like every other day since the D-Reaper, apart from when the Hazard Virus struck, had been a very quiet day. Hypnos was currently mainly involved in plugging a leak which had been created by the Hazard Virus, and hence outsiders had found confidential information about the agency. This work, however, didn't involve the main operatives, Riley, Tally and the senior director of Hypnos, Yamaki, and hence they had very little work to do.

Yamaki leaned back in his seat below the main workstation. Tally typed busily away at the keyboard of illuminated lights in front of her, while Riley sat back in her elevated seat.

"Still quiet?" Yamaki asked Riley.

"Yes, nothing really has happened in the past few days," Riley replied.

"You speak like I haven't noticed. Any more reports on the Hazard Virus?"

"Hold on, I'll check." Riley tapped away at her keyboard for a minute. Yamaki, in boredom, flicked his lighter several times. "Nope, nothing, still quiet."

"And yet something seems odd. Run a full scan of the Digital World and the Digital Plane, we must be missing something."

"With respect Sir, I think that would be a waste of time and resources." Riley replied. Yamaki was about to answer back, but Riley continued. "Look, I know you're bored and all, but there really is nothing to see. You've done a full scan at least once a day so far. You really need to…Momentai…hmm…"

"What? Momentai?"

"That bunny-like partner of that Tamer Henry…he would always say it. During the D-Reaper crisis he used it a lot while we were stationed in our temporary base. I asked his Tamer once, and he said it means either 'Take it easy' or 'Don't worry'."

"Fine, forget the scan."

"There is something I have considered doing sir, which could be quiet amusing and at least take up some time." Tally said, turning to her boss and stopping using the keyboard.

"Well then, what is it?" Yamaki questioned.

"Well, you know we can scan the Digital World and all, and we can use Tracers to see what is going on in the Digital Plane. What if we were to use on in the Digital World? May be worth a look at least."

"It is only a boring world of dust Tally, hardly worth wasting resources on."

"We could always focus on the Tamers who are there, at least check they are okay."

"Fine, if you wish. I'm going outside for a second."

Tally nodded and begun to work at what she planned to do. Riley watched her boss exit the room, after which the doors slid, closed.

Yamaki strolled across to a large plate glass window opposite the entrance and looked out on the city of Tokyo.

'_I should be glad for this peace, yet this seems to be an eerie calm. Certainly, the Tamers being in the digital world has made things more interesting, but it still seems that this is only a moment of peace, and soon enough it will be shattered'_

The lighter clicked.

* * *

**Matsuki Bakery, West Shinjuku**

**17:13 JST**

Kazu and Kenta arrived at the bakery. The sliding doors parted as they approached and they saw Jeri Katou. Despite her trauma during the D-Reaper, and to her credit, Jeri had returned to her normal nice self. Kazu, once in his rare moments of seriousness, had floated the motion that she was covering something up. Jeri was currently talking to Takato's mother.

"So you have no idea of where he is?"

"Nope, sorry. He should be back soon however." Takato's mother, Mie Matsuki replied.

"Okay then, I'll check again tomorrow. Bye" Jeri replied cheerfully, before turning to leave the shop. Takato's mother headed to the back of the store where Takato's father was preparing bread.

"Oh, hi Kazu, hi Kenta. How are you two?"

"Fine…" Kazu said, eying the bread behind Jeri's back.

"Kazu, you're not going to steal more bread from Takato's parents on Takato's tab are you?"

"Of course not, what do you take me for, a thief?"

Jeri giggled. "Yes, probably the most likely person I know who would act like one at least." Before Kazu could reply, Jeri interrupted, after looking around to make sure that Mei wasn't there. "I need to talk to the both of you."

"Yeah, but we need to talk to Takato's mother first." Kenta replied.

"Yes, but Takato has gone missing. I'm sure of it. And his parents are saying nothing." Jeri replied.

"So you've noticed it too. That's strange." Kazu replied.

"Maybe we should go over to Rika and Henry's houses and see if they are there?" Kenta suggested. Jeri nodded.

"Okay, I think I know the…" she said as she began to speak, but she was interrupted when a cell phone rung with the Digimon Theme tune. Jeri, blushing, apologised and pulled a cell phone out of her pocket, answered the call and put the phone to her ear.

"Hello? Oh, hi Mum. Yeah, I'll be there soon. Okay, bye, love you." Jeri spoke on the phone. She returned the handset to her pocket. Kenta noticed her newfound bond with her step-mother.

'_I'm glad those two are finally working things out.' _he thought.

"I've gotta go help my mother out at the restaurant, it's been a busy week there. I'll meet you two at the park tomorrow and we can start looking, okay?" Jeri asked as she prepared to leave.

"Fine" Kazu replied, unsubtly annoyed that they wouldn't get a chance to find out the truth today.

"Good, well, see ya" Jeri replied as she headed out of the door.

"Damn, I was looking forward to finding out where the others were as well" Kazu said annoyed.

"Well, at least tomorrow is Saturday, it'll be easier to find them with a whole day to look. I mean, how hard can it be to find them?" Kenta asked rhetorically, unknowing of the irony of his statement.

* * *

**DIGITAL WORLD**

**Mountain Level**

**10:00 UTC**

Takato and Rika had walked for a long length of time and had yet to even talk to each other. Guilmon looked up at the brief, silent glances at each other and thought to himself.

'_Takatomon sure is acting strange, he always seems to get like this around girls, I wonder why…maybe I should ask Terriermon or Renamon about it, they seem more knowledgeable about it than me…I'm looking forward to seeing them again, it seems like its been so long since I've seen any of them…I'm looking forward to having peanut butter again, and Guilmon Bread, Guilmon Bread…" _Guilmon thought in his never-ending stream of consciousness.

A small settlement had come into view a short distance ahead. Traditionally Japanese, the building were wood with sliding doors. Various small Digimon, most similar to Gekomon and Ottamamon walked around. As the group entered the village, they were greeted by a Gekomon, a green biped frog-like Digimon with a trumpet on its back, waving a particularly pointy stick at them.

"Now youse jusce wait there a minute" he started, angrily, although the lisp made it hard for him to be taken seriously. "If youse megas are here to continue attacking her, youse got another thsing coming!"

"Hey, we're not here to cause any trouble…aren't we Takato?" Guilmon asked his partner.

"No, of course not…hmm, who is 'her' by any chance?" Takato said, trying to avoid his partner's suggestions.

"None of your bishness" the Gekomon replied. "Just what kinds of Digimon are youse anyways?"

"We're not Digimon, well, at least me and her aren't. We're humans, I'm Takato and this is Rika." Takato said, turning to his companion and introducing her, but Rika was distracted.

'_This place reminds me of home, all these shutters and this wood. How practical is this anyway?' she thought._

"Makes no differense, youse still ain't coming in heres, and there is nothing you can do get through." Gekomon said, blocking the door to one of the buildings. "Whaat?" he exclaimed, as Rika said "Whatever" and walked straight through the papery-thin wall next to the door, while Takato and Guilmon watched in shock.

"Hey, that looks like fun!" Guilmon exclaimed, bounding after Rika and through the paper. Takato soon followed.

"Hey, youse gonna pay for that damagse." Gekomon said, angry at the damage caused, but got no response. Rika, Takato and Guilmon were distracted by something.

There, in the corner of the room, data cracking and flickering and with hundreds of injuries, lay a large bipedal yellow fox.

"Renamon!" Rika exclaimed.

TO BE CONTINUED...

* * *

Well, an interesting revelation here. The chapter title may not be obviously related to what has happened so far, but there is a hint in the last section. Please review, it definitely helps my writing and my storytelling.

Next time…

Will Jeri, Kazu and Kenta find out where the three lead Tamers of their group have vanished to? Will Henry and Ryo find the Digimon, and catch up with Rika and Takato? What happened to Renamon?

Find out in 'Find Her, Find Out, Fall Out', Chapter 6 of Dimensions Book One: Links.


	6. Find Her, Find Out, Fall Out

Welcome to Chapter 6. Less action in this one, but a big event happens which sets up the final lead up to the climax of this first arc of the story.

DISCLAIMER: Blazing Chaos does not own Digimon, but does own the OCs introduced in this story and later stories.

* * *

**DIMENSIONS**

_**BOOK ONE**_

_Links_

By Blazing Chaos

* * *

**CHAPTER 6**

_Find Her, Find Out, Fall Out  
_

* * *

**Mountain Level**

**10:03 UTC**

Rika bent down to see her partner.

"Renamon…are you okay?" she asked. Takato, listening, noticed the change in her tone as she turned emotional, thoughts fully concentrated on her partner. Renamon struggled to speak, but eventually gave up and simply nodded slightly. Rika felt a tear run down her cheek, but wiped it away.

"What happened to her?" Takato asked an Ottamamon, who, along with most of the town, had arrived.

"We found her about a mile from here. She got beat up pretty bad, and some megas were seen leaving the area. She probably got attacked."

"Who would do such a thing?" Takato asked. "I mean, she's only a rookie, why would any mega want to attack her, the data wouldn't be useful?"

"It is said that if a Digimon absorbs the data of a tamed Digimon then they will be able to go to the human world…" Ottamamon replied. Takato recalled the familiar legend.

"Will she be okay?" Guilmon asked, worry in his voice.

No-one replied. Guilmon walked across to look at Renamon.

"Are you okay?" he asked. Renamon looked at him and tried to speak, but collapsed back into unconsciousness. Guilmon frowned and sat on the ground.

"Rika, are you okay?"

"Takato…I…" Rika began to reply, turning to him, before stopping. "…make yourself and your partner useful and find some of those data packets, okay?" Takato stared into her eyes and noticed her care for Renamon. He nodded.

"We'll be back as soon as we can." Takato added.

"We'll help" said one Ottamamon, and left, soon followed by the rest of the Gekomon and Ottamamon. Takato followed, taking one last glance at Rika and sighing.

* * *

**Mountain Level, Cern Lake**

**11:00 UTC**

Henry and Ryo kept walking across this new level. Terriermon moaned.

"Why did we have to let them go on ahead, we'll never catch up and I'm bored, this whole place is so boring" he rambled.

"Hmm, my D-Arc says there is a lot of data up ahead, maybe we should be cautious."

"Cautious?! I'm too bored to be cautious, fun and danger, here I come!" Terriermon cheered, leaping off Henry's shoulder and running to the top of the hill the path took them along.

"Terriermon!" Henry exclaimed, worried that he would lose his partner again. Terriermon stopped at the top of the hill.

"Hey, look!" he happily exclaimed, and pointed down the hill. By the lakeside, various familiar Digimon sat: Impmon, MarineAngemon, Guardromon and Calumon. "It's some of the others…I don't see Takato and Rika though, they can't be too far though, can they?"

* * *

**Mountain Level, Tibo Village**

**13:00 UTC**

A few hours ago Takato and the Gekomon/Ottamamon had returned with the data packets. After using them on Renamon, her data became repaired and she was now able to speak, although Rika encouraged her not to. Most of the Gekomon and Ottamamon had returned to their normal work and Renamon had gone to sleep. Takato and Guilmon sat on the edge of the balcony for the temple building and contemplated their situation, Guilmon occasionally going to get food. When Guilmon returned from one of his trips, he found Takato watching Rika, who was still nursing Renamon back to health. Rika simply stared at Renamon for most of the time, occasionally glancing up and noticing Takato.

"Are you okay Takato?" he asked curiously.

"Yeah, I'm fine" Takato replied glumly.

"You don't seem fine. What's the matter?"

"I'm not really sure myself."

"You seem really distracted today Takatomon. Is this about a girl?"

"What?" Takato replied, shocked at his partner's question (and level of intelligence). "No, why would you ask that?"

"Because Takatomon always acts oddly and distracted around girls."

"Such as when?"

"You've acted weirdly with Rika and with Jeri. I asked Impmon when we were back in the real world and he said it was called love, but he wouldn't tell me what love is, since he said it makes him sick to his stomach. I asked Terriermon what love was and he simply joked about something to do with beds. I asked Renamon and she looked at me, blushed and told me that it wasn't important. So I'll ask you. Takato, what is love?"

"How should I know?"

"Takatomon, do you love Rika?"

"What?! What makes you think that?" Takato said, blushing brightly.

"You didn't deny it, and you're blushing. Yay, I found out something, Takatomon loves R…!" Guilmon began to dance, but Takato grabbed his mouth and pushed him to the ground. Guilmon began to struggle.

"Hey, what are you…"

"Quiet Guilmon. Look, I'll talk to you about it later, okay?"

"Okay then." Guilmon replied happily.

Unbeknownst to the Tamer and partner, a pair or spheres connected by a central bar rotated above. It then dissimilated into data.

* * *

**REAL WORLD**

**Hypnos**

**21:00 JST**

Riley removed her headphones and chuckled. Their short lasted view of the Digital World had brought an interesting discovery. She smiled.

'_Well, may as well leave these kids to sort out their own problems. Ah, young love…'_ she thought, as she left the chair. She said goodbye to Tally, and left the control room. Heading down the corridor, she reached the cafeteria and saw Yamaki there.

"Sir…are you okay?"

"Huh…oh, hello Riley. Just tired…"

"You should get some rest."

Yamaki nodded.

* * *

**INTERNET**

Digital Watch Website, Chat Room

**14:00 UTC**

**Digifan29 has logged in.**

**Digifan29: Hello? Is anyone online?**

**Whoarethetamers: Only me. Been quiet on here since the Digital activity died down.**

**Digifan29: That's what it looks like you mean.**

**Whoarethetamers: I see your point.**

**Digifan29: Yeah, I mean with all these government agencies surrounding them, anything could happen.**

**Whoarethetamers: Yeah. I got contacted by a government agent over that information on a project by an agency called Hypnos called resurrection.**

**Digifan29: Resurrection?**

**Whoarethetamers: Yeah, it seems to be some form of machine to separate data, but I have no idea how it works. I don't really understand this kind of thing.**

**Digifan29: Stick it online, there'll be someone somewhere that can understand it.**

**Whoarethetamers: But will Hypnos find it first?**

**Digifan29: Who knows, worth a try though.**

**Whoarethetamers: Fair doos.**

**Yelir has logged in.**

**Digifan29: Hello? I haven't seen you around here before.**

**Digifan29: Hello? Is your chat working, I haven't got a response yet.**

**Whoarethetamers: Odd, normally this chat is reliable as hell.**

**Digifan29: Yeah, something seems odd here.**

**Whoarethetamers: Yeah, very…**

**Whoarethetamers been disconnected.**

**Digifan29: Hello? What happened? HELLO!! What's going on…**

**Digifan29 has been disconnected.**

* * *

**DIGITAL WORLD**

**Tibo Village**

**17:00 UTC**

Rika sat next to her recently awoken partner. Both were silent for the time being, simply glad to be together again. Rika finally decided to ask a question.

"So…what happened out there? Everyone said that you were attacked by some megas…looks like you put up a good fight." Rika said, proud of her partner.

"That's not the whole truth Rika," replied the yellow fox.

"So what is then?"

"They didn't attack me…I attacked them."

"What?!"

Rika contemplated this for a second. She still didn't understand.

"Why?"

"To be stronger…"

"But…why?"

"I did it for two reasons. One was to become more powerful, so we could be a better team…and the other was to become more powerful so I could get back to you Rika…I apologise for my foolishness."

"That doesn't sound like you."

"When I was separated from the others…I was the first to be separated by the sounds of it. I spent weeks alone in fear…I was driven insane by it, it almost drove me to a foolish death…and, even when I was hurt, I wouldn't accept help, until I eventually fell unconscious…"

"Doesn't sound like you at all…I'm just glad you're safe."

"Only with your help Rika."

Rika nodded.

"So…what have I missed?" Renamon questioned.

"Not much really, life has been a bore since you guys all left."

"I would think peace would be a relief."

"I thought so too, but without our Digimon it was boring. I know that sounds selfish but I could hardly care less."

"Same old Rika. I saw you and Takato, did you two come alone?" Renamon queried. Rika swore that she saw a hint of a grin on Renamon's face, but her expressions were hard to tell.

"What are you suggesting Renamon?"

"Nothing, why would I suggest anything?"

"No reason. Regardless, we came with Henry and, unfortunately, Mr Perfect."

Renamon nodded.

"I presume we are heading home soon?"

"Yes, when Henry and the others reach us, we'll probably call for the arc or something, not too sure, wasn't paying any attention when Brainiac explained it." Renamon nodded in response. They went back to not talking and simply contemplating.

"Can I come in?" came a voice from the door.

"Yes Tak…Gogglehead…" Rika replied, inciting a confused glare from Renamon, which Rika failed to notice.

'_What was that all about? I was only joking earlier…wasn't I?'_ Renamon thought, now more confused than before.

"Renamon, are you feeling any better?" Guilmon asked, having entered the room with Takato.

"Yes thank you, particularly to all of you for collecting the spare data in those tumbleweed things."

"Not a problem, always glad to help." Takato replied.

"You didn't help much earlier when you grabbed my mouth and pushed me to the ground for saying…ow, Takato, that hurt." Guilmon said, while putting his hand on his sore nose after Takato whacked him on it.

"Yeah Ta…Gogglehead, what did you do that for? What did he say?" Rika asked.

"Erm…nothing, it's really nothing, nothing at all, nothing nothing nothing…" Takato replied, trying to weasel his way out of an uncomfortable situation.

"Gogglehead…tell me the truth." Rika insisted, glaring into Takato's eyes.

Takato stuttered for a few seconds, before a thought occurred to him. He replied, rather more confidently.

"Look, Rika, there are some things…some things that I just can't tell you, some things that are too deep, and some that would affect our relationship. Now, I've got to go see if Henry and the others are anywhere nearby."

Takato turned and left a confused Rika and Renamon in the room, since Guilmon followed him out.

"What was that all about?" Renamon questioned.

"I'm not sure." Rika replied. _'But I'm sure what he said sounded familiar…'_ (A/N: See the end of chapter 3.)

Rika sat back and thought.

'_I'm finding it really hard to keep my feelings hidden to be honest. I mean, he follows me all the way here on insistence, even after I insult him repeatedly. What is he trying to do? And what did Guilmon say? Since when did life become so complicated?'_ Rika thought, sighing. Renamon noticed her sigh, but decided not to ask about it.

* * *

**17:12 UTC**

Takato moved until both he and his partner were hidden behind one of the other buildings.

"Look Guilmon, what I tell you here and now stays a secret. That means no telling anyone, got it?" Takato told his partner.

"What if they give me food?" the red dinosaur asked.

"Even then you don't tell."

"But I can't refuse food."

"Look, if they offer you food, remember that I'll give you…erm…twice as much later or when we get home, okay?"

"Okay then."

"Good. Now, where to start? Love is when…you really, really, really like someone."

"Like a friend?"

"A bit, but it's a lot more than that. It's really hard to explain…"

"I'm a good listener." Guilmon replied.

'_Geez, Guilmon gets smarter every day. It's getting difficult to bluff my way out of things like this.'_ "Well…love…love is when you care for someone a lot. You wouldn't want to see them get hurt, and you want to do everything with them."

"Like me and you?" Guilmon asked.

"Yeah, I guess, but that's not the kind of love that you are thinking of. Look, even I'm not an expert, so I can't really explain it…I'm not really sure who can."

"Okay Takatomon. I'm hungry now; I'm going to go eat some more food."

"Okay then." Takato replied, as he watched Guilmon head away. "I find it surprising how despite the fact no-one needs to eat here, Guilmon will still eat everything he can get his hands on. I guess he just loves eating" he said, talking to himself.

* * *

**17:17 UTC**

Rika sat quietly with Renamon. Despite their closeness, they never seemed to speak.

"I presume by the fact that the others have not reached us yet that we will not be returning to the real world today?" Renamon asked.

"Yeah…I guess we're staying here…if the Gekomon will let us, that is…hmm…" Rika said, as she began to ponder.

"What's wrong?"

"…nothing…just thinking about things…"

"Such as?" Renamon asked. Rika looked down at the floor.

"Look Renamon, I need to be honest with you. You see, before we came here I…had an argument with my mum…" Renamon began to put two and two together. "You see, I wanted to ask her about coming here, but she didn't come home that night…and then I told her…that I hated her."

Renamon looked at Rika for a few seconds. Closing her eyes, Renamon asked a question.

"Are you sure that is everything Rika?"

"Huh…why would you ask that?"

"Because you have had arguments with your mother before and you've never reacted like this…is there something else?"

"Um…no…"

Renamon nodded, unbelieving of what Rika had said. She closed her eyes to think.

'_She is hiding something from me. But what could it be? Did something happen after we were separated, either here or in the real world? And why is she acting strangely around Takato?' _An idea occurred to Renamon. She dismissed it.

* * *

**17:30 UTC**

Takato, having nothing else to do, had joined his partner where the food was, in a small restaurant in one of the buildings. Them being interesting guests and they being polite hosts, the Gekomon and Ottamamon failed to argue about how much free food Guilmon was eating. Takato sat near his partner, seat leaning against the wall. He was thinking.

'_Hmm…'_

Guilmon choked on some food, but soon coughed up the food. The Gekomon and Ottamamon watched in surprise, but then Guilmon ordered more and they set to work. Takato smiled.

'_We're in an interesting situation here. I wonder when Henry and the others will get here; I bet that between them, Guilmon, Terriermon and Calumon would eat this place bare. Speaking of eating, I wonder if Rika wants anything, she hasn't left Renamon's side for a while. Maybe Renamon would want something. I wonder what they would eat.'_

Takato looked at the line of plates that Guilmon had. After some thinking, he chose a simple plate of bread and added a few items that could be used with it to the plate.

"I'll be back soon Guilmon" he said to his partner, and left the building. Walking along the path between the buildings, he watched various Gekomon and Ottamamon walking about, doing…whatever they spend their lives doing. He arrived at the building that Rika and Renamon were in and slid back the door. As he entered, Rika greeted him.

"Hello Gogglehead…" Rika said, looking up.

"Hey. I thought you and Renamon might be hungry, so I got you some food." Takato said cheerfully.

"You forget that we do not need to eat here." Renamon replied.

"Meh, it's food, it tastes nice, gimme…" Rika said. Takato placed the dish on the floor. Rika broke some pieces of bread and spread some butter on them. She began to eat. "Thanks T…Gogglehead."

"No problem."

Takato sat down against the wall next to Rika.

"How are you feeling Renamon?" Takato asked.

"Fine thank you" Renamon replied.

"Good."

The three were quiet afterwards. Renamon noticed the agitation between them, and attempted to stand up. Rika and Takato watched, eager to see if she could. She stood upright for a few seconds, before she collapsed to the side. Takato grabbed her quickly to prevent her hitting her head on the floor. He slowly let an unconscious Renamon down on the ground. Rika frowned, and then sighed.

"Looks like she still hasn't got back to full strength" Rika said.

"Well, she did get attacked by some Mega Digimon, I'm not surprised." Takato added.

Rika nodded, and decided silently not to tell Takato the truth.

"Looks like we're stuck here anyway." Takato continued. Rika simply nodded in response. "I asked the Gekomon, they said that they will make us up some accommodation." Rika nodded again.

"Any sight of the others?"

"Nope, but the D-Nav says that they are nearby."

"Good" Rika replied.

* * *

**18:01 UTC**

Takato and Rika had resorted to sitting on the decking out the front of the building. The evening was drawing on, but there were no clues, since the Earth-orb still sat in the sky and it was bright as midday. They looked towards the path which they had entered on every so often, although they had seen nothing so far. At about half six, however, they saw a group of dots appear. It got closer, and they could make out individual faces. They also saw the addition of Lopmon to the group, and Takato presumed they had found

"Yeah, it's the others." Rika replied to Takato's question about whether it was the others. Takato nodded and stood up.

"Hey Henry, Hey Ryo"

The glare from 8 pairs of eyes that Takato got was like ice. They then turned to Rika and gave the same glare. Takato looked surprised and nervous.

"Oh…hi…everyone…what's up?" Takato asked nervously. He got no response. Eventually, Rika stood up.

"Look, if you guys are pissed off at us for walking off, then it's your problem" she said, before walking away.

* * *

**20:25 UTC**

The day had been swept away and turned to night. The Gekomon had headed into their buildings, while the Tamers and Digimon had made a fire in the village and began to sit around it. Renamon had now managed to recover and had been walking around for about half an hour, along with shadow-shifting. However, tensions were high in the group of Tamers and Digimon and there was very little talking. Guilmon was eating food that he had attempted to cook on the barbecue, but even his vomiting failed to distract the others from their glares at Rika and Takato.

Takato decided to finally break the silence.

"So, I think it's worth calling Hypnos and getting them to send the Arc tomorrow" he said to Henry specifically. Henry nodded, and, still silently, removed the D-Nav from his pocket. He began to send a message."

Rika sat, hearing the near total silence, apart from a few far off noises. She finally got sick of it. She slammed her hands down on the floor, and everyone turned to look at her.

"Right, now I'm pissed off. Look, it's not our fault that you had to walk so far, you knew we'd have to do a lot of walking when you came, just because you couldn't find us even with a piece of high-tech equipment to help isn't our problem, got it?"

"No, we haven't…" Ryo replied. Rika turned to him with a death glare.

"Go to hell Ryo." Rika swore.

"Typical." Ryo replied.

"What did you say?"

"I said TYPICAL" Ryo yelled at Rika.

"I heard." Rika glared at him, and Ryo glared back. Henry and Takato were anxious, along with the Digimon. Rika turned to her side.

"Renamon…"

"Yes Rika?" the Kitsune said, phasing in to reality.

"We're leaving…" she said, as she turned to leave. She walked away from the group, muttering. "…not worth my time."

Ryo dismissed her. "Good riddance."

Takato looked worried as he watched Rika leave. He turned to Henry, who just nodded, knowing what Takato was going to ask.

"Cheers" Takato said, as he stood up. He saw Renamon digivolve to Kyubimon out of the corner of his eye.

'_I've got to catch up to her, I can't break my promise to her mother.'_ Takato said. "Guilmon, let's go"

"Are you sure Takatomon, I'm tired?" asked his partner.

Takato watched Rika go for a few seconds, and made a decision.

"Yeah…let's go!" he replied.

A few seconds later, Growlmon with Takato on his back followed after.

'_Good luck Takato'_ Henry thought. The clock on the navigator flashed up, unbeknownst to him.

**T-130000…T-125959…T-125958…**

TO BE CONTINUED...

* * *

We're now speeding towards the end of the first arc of this story. The next chapter will be a pivotal one, and will leave some interesting questions in our Tamer's minds, including those of our favourite couple. Review constructively please, it really helps.

Next time…

Will Takato catch up with Rika? Will Renamon find out Rika's secret? Will Jeri, Kazu and Kenta find out what has happened to the Tamers? And will Rika and Takato make it back to the Arc in time?

Find out in 'Fiery Blood, Icy Heart', Chapter 7 of Dimensions Book One: Links.


	7. Fiery Blood, Icy Heart

Welcome to Chapter 7. A major pivotal chapter this one, that will influence the whole series of stories. This is a longer chapter than the others so far because I really don't feel like breaking up the flow of a really important scene with a cliff-hanger.

DISCLAIMER: Blazing Chaos does not own Digimon, but does own the OCs introduced in this story and later stories. I don't own the song in this chapter either.

* * *

**DIMENSIONS**

_**BOOK ONE**_

_Links_

By Blazing Chaos

* * *

**CHAPTER 7**

_Fiery Blood, Icy Heart  
_

* * *

**DIGITAL WORLD**

**Ibm Lake, Mountain Level**

**21:00 UTC**

**T-123000**

The dark of the night beat down hard on the lakes and forests as Kyubimon raced quickly across them, leaving Growlmon and Takato way behind. They had been trying to follow Rika and Kyubimon for about half an hour now, but the speed difference was far too great. Thankfully, the D-Nav was proving to be a useful tool in tracking the pair, and Takato decided to thank Yamaki when he returned to the real world.

Another problem, however, had become clear.

According to an email from Henry, the D-Arc was due at 9:30 the next day. It seemed simple enough to get there and back in that time, but Takato already felt tired. He also knew that Growlmon wouldn't last much longer. He was thankful for his sleeping-bag in his backpack.

"Ow, Takato, my feet hurt…" Growlmon moaned.

"Sorry boy, but we need to keep moving…" Takato replied, patting his partner on the head, which was also where he was sitting. "This should help" he said, swiping a recharge card through his D-Arc. However, his supplies of cards were running low. He resigned himself to the fact that he would need to stop for sleep soon. However, he was also thankful that Rika and Kyubimon would also have to stop, and, to his knowledge, they were unaware of the fact that he was following. He hoped that he could wake up before Rika would, and thus gain some much needed ground.

One thing disconcerted him.

Rika's signal was heading towards the large, ½ snow covered mountain in front of him.

* * *

**Lowest Level**

**21:30 UTC**

**T-120000**

The being landed harshly on the sands of the lowest level. The overwhelming silence disturbed him, but it had not changed since he was last in the Digital World. It considered its options for reaching his destination, and hence her. The sand was beaten by the wind, but the large winds of the beast blew it away with ease. It decided to regain its strength by sleeping, since it had noticed the distinct lack of any Digimon in the area, and it doubted whether the Digimon to be found her could destroy him anyway.

The beast lay on the floor, and quickly went into a deep sleep.

* * *

**Spire Mountain, Mountain Level**

**22:01 UTC**

**T-112900**

Kyubimon slowed to a stop.

"I'm sorry Rika, I am completely out of energy," She said. Rika climbed off and stood to one side, as her partner dedigivolved.

"Don't worry, you did your best" Rika said as looked around the icy landscape. She shivered for a second, and then looked to see a cave.

"Looks warmer than out here" Rika said, trying to force a smile. Her anger had seemingly worn off, but it was mainly due to the time. She walked to the mouth of the cave. "Probably worth checking whether there is anything or anyone inside" she added. Renamon nodded.

"DIAMOND STORM" she shouted, as crystals shot to be back of the cave, lighting it up periodically. They exploded and portions of the back of the cave caved in. However, they had seen no wild Digimon in the cave in their brief glimpse, so the pair entered. Rika placed her backpack on the floor and pulled her sleeping bag out of it. She unrolled it on the floor. Aware of how cold it was, she put on a pale blue jumper to keep warm. She climbed into the sleeping bag and turned to her partner, who had sat up against the wall nearby, looking out of the cave.

"You should get your rest Rika…" Renamon said to her tamer.

"So should you…" Rika replied.

"I see your point. Perhaps we should both sleep, I see no chance of being attacked tonight, and I am likely to hear any threats"

Rika nodded. "Okay then. Oh, and by the way…thanks, for being by my side…"

"No problem Rika. However, you could explain something to me…" Renamon replied, turning to her partner, who appeared to have gone to sleep. However, Rika had merely closed her eyes to avoid the inevitable question. "Never mind…" Renamon continued, whilst sighing. She settled down to sleep.

Rika frowned at the fact she had avoided talking to her partner, but considered it a necessity. She thought about her current situation. A tear ran down her face.

* * *

**Foot of Spire Mountain, Mountain Level**

**22:45 UTC**

**T-104500**

Growlmon and Takato arrived at the foot of the mountain. There were a few small wooded areas here, and Takato decided to stop and rest here.

"This looks like a good place. Okay Growlmon, let me down…" Takato said, as his partner lowered his head so he could get off. "Cheers Growlmon. You can dedigivolve now."

Growlmon did exactly that. Guilmon fell down next to Takato. "So tired…" he said, quickly dozing off to sleep. Takato unrolled his sleeping bag and settled into it.

'_I can't let Rika's mother down. I've got to catch up to her. But what do I say? I mean, she's hardly going to react to all that emotional stuff. Or is she? Back on the train, she seemed more happy to talk…I just hope I can catch up with her…'_

Takato dozed off to sleep.

* * *

**REAL WORLD**

**Kitagawa Residence, West Shinjuku**

**08:03 JST**

**T-102700**

"WAKE UP KENTA" came a loud voice. Kenta awoke with a start, to the face of Kazu Shioda.

"Waaah!!" Kenta yelled and leapt 2 feet in the air, falling out of the bed. His room was small, and the walls had many Digimon posters on them. His D-Arc lay on the side table.

"Ha-ha, look at his pyjamas." Kazu joked to Jeri alongside him.

"That's mean…" Jeri replied.

"But funny…come on Kenta, we're going to go find the others…" Kazu said.

"It's only…five past eight, surely too early to do so?" Kenta replied.

"Chickening out are we? Worried we might find out some huge secret?"

"That's exactly what I'm worried about." Kenta replied, getting strange looks from Kazu and Jeri.

"Why?" Jeri asked.

"What if we find out some really big secret? I mean, if they're gone, they must have a reason to go."

"Perhaps they are organising a surprise party for us?" Jeri thought out loud.

"Oh yeah, get real. Now come on, as far as we know we're missing all the fun." Kazu said, beginning to leave.

"Hey, I have to get changed first. Anyway, how did you get in here?" Kenta asked.

"Your mum let us in. Now hurry up, or you'll have to go in your pyjamas."

"Oh ha-ha, very funny." Kenta said, as Kazu and Jeri left the room, Jeri closing the door behind her. Kazu was laughing.

"That wasn't very funny Kazu" Jeri said.

"Oh come on, it was…" he replied.

Jeri sighed.

* * *

**08:13 JST**

**T-101700**

Ten minutes later, the small group of three Tamers walked through the streets of Tokyo, Jeri leading, and Kazu and Kenta behind her to either side.

"So, how far to Rika's house?" Kenta asked.

"Well, she lives in East Shinjuku, but it can't be that far." Jeri replied.

"Sounds like a long way to me" Kazu commented.

They left the residential area where Kenta lived and came to a main road. They crossed via a footbridge and headed towards the park.

"If we hurry, Rika won't have gone anywhere yet" Jeri said enthusiastically.

"Why do I have a feeling she won't be there at all?" Kenta complained.

* * *

**08:37 JST**

**T-095300**

The three had arrived in the East Shinjuku residential area. They walked through the walled streets. Jeri reached a dead end and turned around.

"Wrong way guys…" Jeri said, giggling nervously.

"Do you actually have a clue where we are going?" Kazu asked irritated.

"Of course, of course…erm, it's this way" she said, gesturing for them to follow.

* * *

**09:30 JST**

**T-090000**

"Here we are, I knew we'd find it." Jeri said.

"Yes, but we spent an HOUR doing so!!" Kazu complained.

"Even if she were here earlier, she's probably gone to the park by now." Kenta added.

"Look, quit complaining" Jeri said as she knocked on the door. After a short while, Seiko Hata arrived at the door and opened it.

"Oh, hello…you must be my granddaughter's friends?" she asked. Jeri nodded.

"Is Rika in?" Jeri asked. Seiko stared blankly for a second or two. She then replied, monotonously.

"No. She's…out…"

Jeri nodded.

"Any chance of knowing when she'll get back?"

"Well, you know Rika, she could have gone anywhere, and she doesn't tend to tell us. But, personally if I were you, I'd try the park."

Jeri nodded. "Ok Mrs Hata. Thank you for your time."

"It was no problem. Glad to help." Seiko replied, and closed the door, as the three tamers walked away. They reached the alleyway between the houses.

"That was…strange…" Kenta said.

"Yeah, I think Rika's grandmother is insane, strange since she seemed like such a nice lady at first" Kazu thought aloud.

"Are you for real? She's clearly covering something up." Jeri said, annoyed at the other two's lack of thought.

"You know, you sounded just like Rika there." Kazu noted.

"Come on, we'll try the park first, and then we'll go find Henry."

The three headed off away from the house.

* * *

**09:50 JST**

**T-084000**

The group of three arrived at the park.

"Well, here we are where everything happens" Kazu noted.

"Yeah, but seems like we never come here these days" Kenta added sadly.

"Come on, we're looking for Rika, not taking a trip down memory lane." Jeri interrupted, annoyed. The two boys followed her up the steps to the hut.

"Psst…I think that Jeri is acting more like Rika every day" Kazu whispered to Kenta.

"Yeah…" Kenta replied. Jeri turned round.

"What was that?" she asked.

"Nothing" the two boys replied.

"Sure…" Jeri said, and continued to walk up the steps. Kazu and Kenta looked at each other and grinned.

"Hello? Rika? Takato? Anyone?" Jeri said into the hideout. There was no response.

"Okay, so they aren't here. Any other ideas?" Kazu said.

"Well, let's go to Henry's house now." Kenta answered. "Anyone know where he lives?"

"I do" Jeri said.

"I hope you ACTUALLY know this time." Kazu replied.

"Of course…" Jeri said, giggling.

They turned and walked away, strangely none of them having noticed the faint static noise near the hideout.

* * *

**DIGITAL WORLD**

**Tibo Village, Mountain Level**

**01:30 UTC**

**T-080000**

Henry lay awake in one of the makeshift beds in one of the buildings. Terriermon lay next to him, and MarineAngemon, Calumon and Impmon slept on the floor. Terriermon was mumbling in his sleep.

"…mmm…cheese on peanut butter…no Rika, no, not the frying pan…ouch…ouch…ouch…moment…ouch! Hmm…cheese on peanut butter…yuck…ah…cream puffs…no Calumon, they're mine…hey, Impmon, give them back…Henry, help me…hey, it's raining cream puffs…yay…"

Henry smiled at his partners odd dreams. He lifted up the D-Nav for what must have been the four-hundredth time in the last hour and stared at the numbers on the screen.

**T-075829…T-075828…T-075827…**

'_We've only got just under eight hours to get to the lowest level, and I need all the sleep I can get. Why can't I sleep? Maybe I just need reassurance…'_

Henry considered waking Terriermon up, but decided against it.

'…_it'd be better if there was someone more sympathetic to talk to here, like Jeri…I really need to talk to someone about this situation…I suppose I could…but would he be awake…I guess its about 10:30 in the real world, he should be awake…'_

Henry started to write an email.

* * *

**REAL WORLD**

**West Shinjuku Martial Arts School**

**10:35 JST**

**T-075500**

The sensei bowed to a pupil.

"You have made good progress Koji, but your energy is too unfocused. You need to concentrate more on putting all your power into your moves and calming yourself down. I will see you tomorrow at the same time."

The boy bowed to his sensei.

"Thank you Sensei, I look forward to continuing my tutelage."

The boy left. (A/N: I'm afraid that this won't be a Frontier crossover fic, but I thought that it was worth putting a cameo in rather than a generic character)

The sensei, now on his short 15 minute break between two lessons, sat down at a computer he had had installed. Despite his line of work and his age, he found the internet to be a useful resource. He checked his emails.

"Hmm, Henry…I thought that he was in the Digital World…"

The sensei clicked the email. He read the message.

**Dear Sensei,**

**I am currently in a rather difficult situation in the digital world. It is about 1:35 here, and I cannot sleep. The reason is because I am thinking of my friends. You see, one of my friends had a falling out with another one and then another of my friends went after her. At the same time, we only have about 8 hours until we have to leave for the real world, hence I am unable to sleep. I am worried for my friends both in the short and long terms. What should I do?**

**Sincerely yours,**

**Henry Wong**

The sensei thought for a short while, before typing a reply.

* * *

**DIGITAL WORLD**

**Tibo Village**

**01:40 UTC**

**T-****075000**

Henry sat there in the dark, and then noticed the email icon on his D-Nav light up. He opened the email.

**Dear Henry,**

**I am interested in your situation. Clearly, I lack knowledge of this world. However, by the sounds of it, the friend that went after your other friend wants to comfort him or her. You must trust that friend to be able to do so, and you should also hope that everything works out between you four in the long term. As for the eight hours problem, I suggest you try to contact them closer to the time when you need to depart.**

**If you need any more help, don't hesitate to ask. However, I am teaching pupils at the moment, so I may take a while to reply. My next pupil I am due to teach, by the way, is Thomas H. Norstein.** (A/N: Nope, no Data Squad either, but just thought I'd drop in a reference)** He is almost as good a pupil as you are, but not quite.**

**Sincerely yours,**

**Sensei**

Henry thought about the email.

'_I guess that Sensei is right. I know that Takato will be able to speak some sense into Rika some way or another, and I know that Ryo and Rika will patch it up, even if it takes time.'_

He looked at the clock on his D-Nav.

'_Hmm…01:42…I should get some sleep…I need to be ready to email Takato when I wake up. Thanks Sensei!'_

Henry faded off to sleep.

* * *

**REAL WORLD**

**Wong Residence, West Shinjuku**

**11:00 JST**

**T-073000**

"Okay, so it took longer than I thought it would…" Jeri said, trying to bluff her way out of a bad situation. The three had arrived at the door.

"It took a LOT longer than you thought it would." Kazu replied annoyed.

"Yeah" Kenta added.

"Look, let's just knock on the door." Jeri said, irritated both at her two companions and the fact that she had taken nearly two hours to find his apartment, including several half hours in the wrong apartment buildings. Jeri knocked on the door. An older teenage girl opened the door.

"Hello?"

"Oh great Jeri, we got the wrong apartment…" Kazu moaned.

"Quiet…we're looking for Henry…"

"Well, you got the right place. I'm his sister, Rinchei" said the girl at the door.

"Good to meet you Rinchei. I'm Jeri Katou and my companions here are Kazu Shioda and Kenta Kitagawa" Jeri said cheerfully.

"Nice to meet all of you. Unfortunately, my mother is out shopping, my father is at work, I'm babysitting Suzie and I'm not sure on where Henry is. Oh, and if Henry has mentioned her, my other sister, Jaarin is at university. Would you like to come in?"

"Yes thank you" Jeri replied. They entered the apartment. Rinchei gestured to the settee.

"Make yourself at home, and I'll get the phone. You can try to contact Henry or my dad that way."

Jeri nodded in response. She and the other two sat down. A young girl with red hair ran out of a nearby room.

"Hawow…awe uwe the Angwy Kwd's frwnds?"

'_**I'm NOT angry!!'**_

Jeri could hear Takato's response herself. She chuckled quietly to herself.

"Hi Suzie…do you know where Henry is?" Kenta asked Suzie.

"Nowpe" she replied.

'_Isn't anyone the slightest bit concerned about them not being here?'_ Jeri thought.

"Right, here's the phone. The numbers you'll want to call are listed on the back. If that's everything then I'll get back to my PC?"

"Yes, that'll be fine" Jeri replied.

"You can pway Princess Prewty Pants with me!" Jeri said, dragging Kenta into her room.

"But wait…!" Kenta said. Kazu chuckled, and Jeri giggled.

"Okay then, let's see…well, first things first, Rika's mobile…" Jeri said, before dialing the number for Rika's mobile, and putting the phone on speakerphone. There was a long pause before they got a message.

"_**We are sorry, but the number you dialled cannot be found. Please check you have the correct number and area code. The phone at the other end may also be either turned off or inactive."**_

Jeri frowned.

"We'll try Henry's mother" she then said. She dialled the number.

A few seconds later, the phone was again on speakerphone. Jeri and Kazu leant over the phone, waiting for a response. Jeri swept a stray hair back behind her ear. Finally, a woman answered the phone.

"_**Hello, this is Mayumi Wong, who is this?"**_

"Oh, hello, this is Jeri Katou and Kazu Shioda" Jeri said.

"_**Oh, hello, you must be Henry's friends. What can I do for you?"**_ Mayumi said.

"We were wondering if you knew where Henry is. We've been looking for him, Takato and Rika all morning."

There was a pause on the phone. _**"He's out…camping."**_

"Okay, any way we can contact him?" Kazu said.

"_**No, he'll be back soon though so I'll call you when he get's back, okay?"**_

"Okay…my number is 080-2943-9427" said Jeri.

"_**Thank you"**_

The phone was hung up. Jeri frowned.

"Now we'll try Henry's father" she then said. She dialled another number in, and put it on speakerphone again. A short while later, a male voice answered.

"_**Hello, this is Janyuu Wong"**_

"Hello, this is Jeri Katou and Kazu Shioda." Jeri said.

"_**Aha, Henry's friends. What did you want to ask?"**_

"We were wondering where Henry is, and to a lesser extent the whereabouts of Takato and Rika."

"_**He is staying with some relatives out of town."**_

"Okay" Jeri said, winking at Kazu. "Thanks for answering our questions"

"_**No problem. Goodbye"**_

The phone hung up. Jeri turned to Kazu.

"Bingo."

Kazu nodded back, grinning.

"Cwome back Princwess Pwetty Pwants, you need to pwut yowe dwess on!" Suzie said, as Kenta escaped from her room. Jeri quickly pulled out her phone and took a picture of Kenta, as they burst out laughing. Kenta had girls makeup on, his hair braided, and Suzie was running after him with a dress.

"Well, we always thought you might be 'that way' Kenta." Jeri said, smiling.

"Yeah" Kazu added, still laughing, and not noticing the subtle reference to him.

"Just run!" Kenta said. He ran out the door, along with Kazu. Jeri smiled and went to Rinchei's room. She was listening to music on her computer through headphones. Despite this, Jeri could hear the music, which was heavy rock music.

"Thanks for the help" Jeri said, in response to which she received a nod. Jeri quietly let herself out. At the bottom of the stairwell she met Kazu and Kenta, Kazu still insane with laughter at Kenta's appearance.

"That's it, I'm going home!" said Kenta. "Anyway, it's lunchtime, I'll meet all you guys at the park in an hour."

"Okay then" Jeri said, nodding. The three split up and went their separate ways.

* * *

**DIGITAL WORLD**

**Foot of Spire Mountain, Mountain Level**

**3:25 UTC**

**T-060500**

Takato awoke from his nearly 5 hour sleep, which had never developed into a deep sleep. Yawning, he climbed out of his sleeping bag. He nudged Guilmon.

"Come on Guilmon, we've got to get moving…" Takato said, his voice raspy.

"But nappy time Takato…" Guilmon said, half asleep.

"I'm sorry boy, but we can't waste any time…"

"Okay then Takato…" Guilmon said, before yawning and sitting up.

"I think we'll walk, looks too steep for Growlmon…hmm…" Takato said, before looking at the D-Nav. "Right, it's this way…come on Guilmon, we've got to catch up with Rika…"

He and his partner began to walk in the direction where the D-Nav was pointing.

* * *

**REAL WORLD**

'**Guilmon's Hideout', Shinjuku Park**

**12:32 JST**

**T-055800**

Jeri arrived at the hideout. Noticing that Kenta and Kazu had not arrived yet, almost as she expected, she sat down against the back wall. She unconsciously noticed the faint static sound. She thought about all the times that they as a group had spent here, until they went to the digital world. Rika would've been teaching her to play cards, with Henry watching and giving tips, Calumon, Terriermon, Guilmon and probably also Takato, Kazu and Kenta would've been playing tag, Renamon would've been watching from a tree, and Leomon would be…

Jeri frowned at the thought of her dead partner. She sighed. Even if the others had been able to get their Digimon back, she would never get Leomon back, excepting a miracle. She silently hoped for a miracle.

"Sorry we're late, Kenta took ages to get his makeup off" Kazu said arriving, still snickering.

"It's not funny" complained Kenta.

"Oh, but it is…"

"Shut up you two… "Jeri complained. "Now, where do we check next?"

"Well, what about Hypnos?" Kazu suggested.

"I suppose that is the natural next place to look. Maybe they can check the D-Arcs. Come on then, let's go…" Jeri said, and she lead the group away from the hideout.

* * *

**13:03 JST**

**T-052700**

The group arrived at the Tokyo Metropolitan Building. They walked up to the receptionist.

"Hello, we're here to see Yamaki of Hypnos" Kazu said to the receptionist.

"Hold on, I'll buzz his phone. Who should I say it is?" said the receptionist.

"Say it is the Digimon Tamers"

"Alright…" she said, and picked up the phone.

"So, you really think that Hypnos can find them?" Kenta asked Jeri.

"Well, if they can track the D-Arcs, they can probably find them." Jeri answered.

"Okay then." Kenta replied.

A few moments later, the receptionist put down the phone.

"Someone is coming to get you" she said to the three.

"Cheers" replied Kazu. A short while after, a brunette exited the lift (elevator) lobby and walked over to the three.

"Hello and welcome to Hypnos. I'm Riley Ootori and I will be your tour guide" she said smiling. Jeri giggled.

"Very funny." Jeri said smiling.

"Good to know, but I'm not a comedian so the humour ends there."

The group entered the lift and Riley pressed the button for floor 29. The lift rapidly accelerated upwards and it finally came to a stop about a minute later.

"Here we are, floor 29, also known as Hypnos" the brunette said.

"Hmm, I've never been here before…wasn't this building destroyed?" Jeri asked.

"That's your tax yen working there." Riley replied whilst smiling. Jeri smiled back. They walked through a cafeteria area with tables and large panes of glass in the windows.

"Is Yamaki here?" Kenta asked.

"No, he's currently in a meeting." Riley replied.

"Oh…okay" Kenta replied.

They entered the main control room. Tally sat high up on the seat, monitoring the Digital Plane activity. A timer counted down on the screen.

**T-051800…T-051759…T-051758…**

"What's the timer for?" asked Kazu.

"Oh...it's just…a timer that we use to split the day into blocks…" Tally replied.

"Oh, okay…hold on…lemme figure this out…hmm…it looks like it's due to end at about half five." Kenta replied.

"Yeah, that's when one block of the day ends and another begins." Tally added. It was a clear lie, since it made no sense to split it like that, but the three tamers knew no different.

"Right, so what do you kids need?" Riley asked.

"We were wondering if you could use your equipment to find out where Rika, Takato and Henry are. We've had no luck just searching blind." Jeri asked.

"Okay then…" Riley said, as she climbed into her seat. She typed on her keyboard and on the surround display up came a map of Tokyo. "Right, tracking D-Arc signals now…"

Several coloured dots appeared. The kids noticed their own colours, as well as a purple dot, but no blue, gold, green or dark blue dots.

"Hmm, no sign of any of them…including Ryo…that's very strange, and worrying too…" Jeri said worried. "Anything else you can do?"

"If you give me your number, we'll call you if anything comes up" Riley suggested.

"Okay then. My mobile number is 080-2943-9427." Jeri said. Riley copied down the numbers exactly, without needing them to be repeated or said more slowly.

'_Well, that's what working for a government agency does to you I guess'_Jeri thought.

* * *

**14:01 JST**

**T-042900**

The three kids walked out of the Tokyo Metropolitan Building. Jeri looked up at the sky.

"Well, what do we do now?" Kazu asked.

"I guess there is nothing more we can do. Look, people have my mobile number, if they ring me and give me any clues, I'll ring you guys. Okay?" Jeri asked.

"Okay" Kazu and Kenta replied.

"Right, now I'm going home" Jeri said, before heading away from the building. Kenta and Kazu then said goodbye and went their separate ways.

* * *

**DIGITAL WORLD**

**Spire Mountain**

**06:00 UTC**

**T-030000**

Rika awoke from her slumber. She felt very emotional. She had dreamt of her father, of her mother, of her current situation, and of Takato. In particular, she remembered when she was a child being pushed on the swings. She sighed. She turned to see Renamon, ever vigilant. She made a decision that was strange for her.

"Renamon…could you leave me alone for a short while?" she asked. Renamon nodded.

"As you wish…" she replied, and phased out.

Rika walked out of the cave and stood on the side of the mountain. She stared out over the digital world and began to sing.

"**Every morning and every night**

**You watch over me like the sun in the sky**

**Every morning and every night**

**Will you promise me promise me**

**You'll be my gui-i-ding light!"**

Nearby, Takato walked up the mountain with Guilmon. Upon hearing the unusual voice, he moved along with Guilmon to hide behind a rock near the cave. He looked over the rock at the source of the noise.**  
**

"**Promise that we'll stay for the sunset**

**And when the moon shines through the darkness**

**We can find the path that leads us home**

**And on the way you'll maybe**

**Sing me a song"**

Takato's mouth hung wide open when he saw who it was.

**"Promise that you always will be there**

**Hold my hand if ever I'm real scared**

**Help me stand up tall if I fall down**

**Make me laugh away my bluest days"**

'_I feel like I'm intruding…but…it's beautiful…she's a really good singer…'_

**"How could you promise you always would be there?**

**Why'd you have to go away somewhere?**

**Every morning into every night**

**Do you watch over me like the sun in the sky?**

**Am all alone or standing in your light?"**

Takato walked over towards Rika. Rika unconsciously heard the footsteps, and they soon registered in her mind. She continued to sing.

**"I wish that I could**

**Maybe…**

**Sing you a song…**

**Tonight."**

Rika sighed, and turned round, to face Takato.

"Alright, now I'm ready to talk" she said emotionally, as a tear ran down her face. Takato was still in shock, and this shocked him further. Rika broke into more crying. Takato put his arm round her.

"Rika…please…please don't cry…" he whispered.

"Everything…everything sucks doesn't it Takato…" Rika said, as her sobbing decreased and she started to talk louder. "I mean I go through life, I try to improve, and I still get the same looks from everyone. My mother doesn't care about me, my father ran away, and I somehow brave through it, but I can't muster up the courage to tell my biggest secret. What possible reason do I have to go back?"

Takato made an action so unlike him that he would later question whether it was actually him doing so.

He leant forward, and he pressed his lips against Rika's in a kiss. Rika's eyes widened. She couldn't believe what was happening. But…surprisingly…she liked it. She began to kiss back and pulled Takato into a tight embrace. The moment seemed to last an eternity. When it finally finished, Rika just stared into Takato's eyes, the pair still in a tight embrace, before Takato asked a question.

"Is that your secret?" he whispered to Rika. Rika nodded, and pulled him into a tighter embrace, her head over his shoulder.

"Thanks…for caring…" Rika said, still emotional. Takato was reminded of something he had said earlier to Guilmon.

"**Well…love…love is when you care for someone a lot."**

"No problem…" Takato replied. Rika lifted her head off Takato's shoulders and stared him straight in the eyes.

"Well, there is one problem." Rika said softly.

"Eh?" Takato said, blushing.

"It is bloody freezing out here!" Rika replied. Takato nodded, and they pulled out of the hug. "We'll go in that cave I was in earlier, it's slightly warmer in there…"

Takato followed Rika to the cave. Takato looked into the cave and he noticed something odd.

"Erm…what happened to the back of the cave?"

"Well, to check there was nothing in there, I had Renamon fire a diamond storm in there…and it kind of…collapsed."

"That doesn't explain what I'm seeing…"

"What do you mean?" Takato simply pointed in response. In front of them was a large flickering image of a forest, which rippled every second or so. Blue streaks of light ran across it occasionally.

"It's a portal!" Rika said.

"If we use this, we can easily get back to the D-Arc before it leaves." Takato said cheerfully. Rika looked at the ground sorrowfully.

"Look Takato…I'm not sure…I'm not sure I want to go back…I'm not sure I can face her again…"

"Rika…" Takato said, as he grabbed Rika's hand. "I'll be by your side. We'll all be by your side, but me especially." Rika nodded.

"Okay then. One question remains…how did you know about my…crush…on you?" Rika said, nervous when she mentioned her crush.

"I'll tell you in a sec…Guilmon…" Takato said, shouting to attract his partner's attention

"Yes Takatomon?" Guilmon said, arriving at the mouth cave. Renamon phased into reality alongside Rika.

"We're moving on through the portal now."

"Okay Takatomon" his partner replied.

"Ready Rika?" Takato said, grabbing Rika's hand.

"Yeah…"

The four leapt through the portal…

* * *

**Lowest Level**

**06:14 UTC**

**T-024600**

Cyberdramon flew across the dry, harsh desert. Riding on his back were Henry, Terriermon, Lopmon, Calumon and Impmon, and MarineAngemon and Guardromon flew alongside.

'_I hope that Rika and Takato make it.' _Henry thought. _'That reminds me'_ he thought, pulling out the D-Nav and beginning to write an email.

* * *

**Forest Level**

**06:16 UTC**

**T-024400**

Two humans, one with a white shirt with a pale blue full heart on it and blue jeans, and the other with a blue top and grey trousers, and two Digimon, one a red dinosaur with black marks on him and the other a yellow fox, were thrown out of a portal that radiated inside a tree.

Takato fell on top of Rika. He looked down and gulped.

"Erm…" Takato said, nervously.

"Don't worry about it…" Rika said, pushing him off. "…maybe when we're older…" she said softly in Takato's ear as they lay on the ground alongside each other.. Takato's eyes widened and he turned his head to face Rika. Rika laughed. "I love messing with your mind," she joked, standing up and offering Takato her hand. She pulled Takato to his feet.

"Okay, it looks like we're back in that forest level…we need a miracle really don't we?" Takato said, slightly worried about their current situation.

"Maybe…let's find the railway tracks…maybe Locomon will give us a lift" Rika said. (A/N: Yes, I am English, so I'll use English terminology thank you very much. No railroads for me.)

Takato and the two Digimon nodded. Suddenly, there was a double beep from Takato's pocket. He pulled out his D-Nav.

"Hmm, I have an email from Henry…" he said, as he opened it. The three others leaned over to look at the screen.

**Hey Takato,**

**I hope you manage or have managed to find Rika. I also hope that you can make it back to the Arc in time. It's due at about 09:30 Digital World Time. Please hurry.**

**Cheers,**

**Henry**

"Hmm, looks like we have about 2 hours and 40 minutes remaining. We need to hurry!" said Rika, checking the time. "Renamon!" Rika said.

"As you wish…"

"**DIGI MODIFY…Digivolution Activate!"** Rika yelled, as she swiped a card through her D-Arc.

**DIGIVOLUTION**

"**Renamon digivolve to…Kyubimon"**

A nine-tailed quadruped fox burst out of the blue mesh egg. Rika leapt onto her back and offered her hand to Takato. Meanwhile, Guilmon, with some difficulty, tried to climb aboard.

"Need a hand?" Rika said at the same time. Takato nodded and grabbed her hand.

"Guilmon, you're pulling on my tails" Kyubimon said, yelping in pain.

Takato sat behind Rika on Kyubimon's back. They held on tight as Kyubimon shook in pain.

"Whoops, sorry. Erm, Takatomon, I need help…." Guilmon said, as Kyubimon yelped again.

Takato leaned over and tried to pull Guilmon up. Rika, noticing his difficulty, assisted him, and Guilmon was pulled up onto Kyubimon's back.

"Let's go!" said Rika, turning to face forwards. Kyubimon broke into a run. "Now, Takato…erm…honey, how did you figure out my secret? I mean, you were risking far too much to just try that out back there."

"Hmm, how can I show you…hold on, one sec…" Takato said, pulling out the D-Nav. "Aha, here we go…" Plugging the memory stick into the USB stock, he brought up the diary entry.

**Dear Diary,**

**Well, looks like life is back to normal after that thing. And by back to normal I mean back to horrible. And yet…I think something has changed. You see, I seem to suddenly have feelings for…him. He may be a total doofus and a walking disaster but…I like him…a lot. But…he likes her. Of course he does, everyone knows that, oddly except those two themselves. Hey, I wouldn't be surprised if the two morons hadn't figured it out yet. Meh, regardless, makes no difference to me.**

**Sigh**

**Hold on, did I just type Sigh? I must be going insane. I wish she were here, life is so boring without anything happening.**

**Rika**

Rika looked at Takato open mouthed.

"But this is…this is my diary…"

"Yes, it surprised me too." Takato said.

"But…it vanished from my PC…how did you get it?"

"I'm not too sure, but maybe it was that Hazard virus thing…" he replied, slightly worried that Rika would think he had hacked her PC.

Rika nodded. "Makes no difference now, does it Goggles?" she said, smiling. Takato grabbed onto her and hugged her from behind. Rika looked back with a confused expression.

"Look, I'll admit, I'm afraid of falling off…"

"Yeah, sure…" Rika laughed.

Takato looked ahead as they galloped through the forest. They reached the railway tracks and headed along them. However, one question remained in Takato's mind. One question, one nagging doubt, disturbed him more than anything else at this moment.

'_Do I…love her back?'_

Kyubimon leapt through the large sand coloured rippling wall that extended across the level.

TO BE CONTINUED…

* * *

And there it is, finally written. A long one too, about 6000 words, as opposed to my usual 3000 or so. A lot of concurrent storylines, made more complex by the fact that times in the Digital World and Real World Japan would be different. Anyway, this is one I'd much like people to read and review.

We're heading towards the end of the first arc now, only one chapter (or maybe half a chapter, haven't decided yet) remains in this first story arc. However, there are still big mysteries afoot, that may be solved in this story or in the next, so stay tuned.

Oh, and by the way, I've launched a forum on for discussion of this story and the saga as a whole. I may also drop a few hints from time to time. It can be found at:

time...  
Will Takato and Rika make it to the arc in time? Who is 'it'? Will Jeri, Kenta and Kazu be mad when they find out the truth? And most importantly of all, does Takato love Rika back?

Find out in 'Countdown to Chaos', Chapter 8 of Dimensions Book One: Links.


	8. Countdown to Chaos

Welcome to Chapter 8. After the huge plot changes in the last episode, you may think I'm done with the major plot points for this first arc of the story.

I'm afraid not.

Also, if Ryo feels out of character, it's because I never really latched on to what personality, if any, he had in the show. He felt very out of place to me to be honest. I'm improving a lot though as I get a better grasp of him.

UPDATE (from the future. Yeah, spooky): Yeah, this chapter does have a huge amount of 'purple prose' near the start of this chapter, hence I've got a rewriten version of this story in progress. And you'll be pleased to hear I have a better grasp on Ryo's personality now which I will be applying to the rewrite as well. Anyway, enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: Blazing Chaos does not own Digimon, but does own the OCs introduced in this story and later stories.

* * *

**DIMENSIONS**

_**BOOK ONE**_

_Links_

By Blazing Chaos

* * *

**CHAPTER 8**

_Countdown To Chaos  
_

* * *

**DIGITAL WORLD**

**Lowest Level**

**08:01 UTC**

**T-012900**

A trail of dust sped across the Digital World's lowest and least interesting level. The empty desert had very few landmarks, excepting a few rocks here or there, and a few railway tracks across its surface. However, it is the closest part of the Digital World to the real world. This makes it the main entry point for beings from the real world going to the digital world and vice versa. This has one downside. Being the lowest point of the digital world, and hence the most accessed part by humans on the internet, despite being the least sophisticated (A/N: Hint Hint, guess the kind of sites I mean), it is swept across by thousands of tornado-like objects known as data streams. If any being were to step into these, they would be swept up and placed down somewhere else in the digital world. The ground was covered in sand, but the sand was mostly flat, unlike several real world deserts. It was also normally colder than real world deserts, although hotter than most other areas in the Digital World.

Nevertheless, I digress. The trail of dust was created by a large yellow quadruped fox with nine tails, and a set of strange red and white ropes around her face, along with several ying-yang signs on her thighs. To an outsider this would be unusual enough, but on its back rode three other beings. From front to back, there was a young girl, no more than 13 years old, wearing a white shirt with pale blue shoulders and a full blue heart on the middle.

Her red hair was tied up in a ponytail, with two strands of her hanging in front of her ears on either side of her face, framing it. She wore blue jeans rolled up at the end and fastened with a brown belt, another smaller one of which was fastened round her left leg. She wore a pair of red wristbands, one on the left wrist, and the other on the right, along with red and silvery-gray coloured sneakers on her feet, and a white device with a blue ring around its screen was clipped to her belt at the back, along with a small box of card size clipped to the opposite side. She held on tight to the fox's mane, leaning down slightly

Behind her, holding on to her tight with his arms around her chest and looking uneasy about the potential for falling off of the yellow fox, was a young boy of around the same age with brown ruffled hair. He wore a large blue hooded jumper, yellow wristbands on each wrist, grey three-quarter length shorts, and green sneakers with silvery-gray soles. Oh, and the most notable feature of him was his yellow ringed goggles on the top his head with blue tinted frames, and a black band holding them to his head.

Finally, last but by no means least, was a red muscular dinosaur who seemed to have no care for his safety, as the large red three clawed arms of his were waved in the air, both of which had black symbols on them on the front, and a black marking around his wrists. There were similar black lines above his knees and on his neck, and black triangular markings on his shoulders. A thick clunky tail waved out to the rear. His feet were similar to his arms, with two clawed toes and the same markings as on his hands. On his white stomach was a large symbol consisting of four intersecting triangles, based around a central black inverted one with a black circle around it. The other three triangles pointed out from the three corners of the central triangle. Finally, on his face he had a large mouth, out of which the ends of teeth could be seen, above which there was a pair of nostrils. He had gold eyes with black markings below them, and the back of the sides of his face were jagged. On his forehead, there was a similar symbol to those on his hands, and a small pair of bat like ears rested on the top of his head.

"Takato, can you tell your doofus of a partner to hold on tight to something, we've already had to stop eleven times to pick him up and next time I'm going to tell Kyubimon to leave him behind" said the girl.

"Okay Rika," replied the boy known as Takato holding onto the girl known as Rika. "You hear that Guilmon, hold onto something."

"Okay Takatomon" replied the dinosaur known as Guilmon. He grabbed onto something, or rather someone.

"Guilmon, let go of me…woah!" Takato said, as Guilmon grabbed him. Takato lost his balance and fell off, pulling him, Rika and his partner Guilmon off of Kyubimon, who soon stopped and turned around.

Takato rubbed his sore head. He looked across to his 'girlfriend' Rika (although at present he would think she would kill him for calling her that), who had now stood up. An outstretched hand was offered and Takato gladly accepted, using it to pull himself back onto his feet.

"Thanks Rika…" said the brown-haired boy.

"No problem Goggles…" replied Rika cheerfully.

"Takatomon, help!" came a muffled voice. Takato and Rika turned to see Guilmon, or rather, his legs sticking out of the sand. When they had fallen off, he had presumably ended up headfirst in the ground. "I'm stuck…"

Rika sighed. This had happened three times so far this journey, although in the past three times it happened, it had just been Guilmon alone who fell off Kyubimon. She watched Takato's attempts to pull Guilmon out. Pressing his feet into the ground so as to lever himself, he pulled hard upwards on Guilmon's legs. However, he had been completely unsuccessful thus far. Rika's partner turned up alongside her and she stroked her mane. Takato placed his hands on his legs and panted in exhaustion.

"This isn't easy for someone who only got five hours sleep last night." Takato sighed.

"It'll help with the jetlag though don't ya think?" Rika replied. Takato nodded.

"Could you help me a bit here?" he asked.

"Fine…Kyubimon, get Guilmon out of the ground…" she said, turning to her partner.

"As you wish…" her partner replied. "**DRAGON WHEEL**" she yelled, as she curled herself up into a blue dragon made of energy, and rolled towards Guilmon's feet at speed. As she struck his feet, he was whipped up and out of the sand, landing safely, although dizzily, bottom down on the sand nearby. Kyubimon came to a stop and returned to her normal self. Turning to face her fellow Digimon, she chuckled at his childish nature.

"Ow…Takatomon, my head hurts…" the red dino said childishly. Takato laughed and patted his partner's head. "Takatomon, that hurts even more…" The other three laughed, and Takato stopped patting Guilmon's head.

"Okay, joking over, we really are cutting it close for time here." Rika said seriously.

"Yeah, at this rate, we won't make it in time. Any ideas?" Takato asked. Rika shrugged.

"Even with my speed cards, we won't get there in time. They aren't fast enough and wear out too quickly." Rika replied, showing him one of the aforementioned types of cards. Takato took it from her hand and stared at it for a short while. Suddenly, he had a brainwave.

"That's it! Rika, I need a pencil, or a pen, or something…" he said to his girlfriend. She gave him a confused look. "Just do it, will ya!" he added. Rika took her backpack off and reached into it. She pulled out a yellow pencil. "Cheers," Takato said enthusiastically, grabbing the pencil. "Can I rest on your back?" he asked.

"If you must" Rika replied, and turned round so Takato could rest the card on her back. "What are you doing anyway?"

"You'll find out in a second…"

"Is it another one of your crazy hare-brained schemes?" Rika asked.

"Probably…right, here we go" Takato answered. He took the card off Rika's back and Rika turned to face him. The card was passed to her. Her eyes traced along the card, looking for the pencil marks. She noticed that a few of the figures had been changed on the speed card, as had the title. A few more streaks had been added to the picture of a fast moving Agumon-like Digimon.

"Chaos Speed?" Rika said, reading the top of the card. "You can't seriously believe this'll work?"

"Do we have any other choice?" Takato said, grinning a dumb grin. Rika blushed.

"Ah well, worth a shot anyway" she said sighing. "**DIGI-MODIFY…Chaos Speed Activate!**" Rika yelled, swiping the card through her D-Arc. Unbeknownst to her, the card glowed red as she did so. Kyubimon faintly flashed red.

"Hey, it worked!" Takato said happily.

Rika leapt aboard, and helped Takato up. Together, they once again helped Guilmon up, and they moved into the same positions as before, although Guilmon now held onto Kyubimon's fur. Kyubimon yelped.

"GUILMON, STOP PULLING SO TIGHT…" she screamed. Guilmon did as she said.

"Sorry Kyubimon" he said frowning. Kyubimon's face turned red for a second, although the exact cause was unclear, whether in pain, embarrassment, or something else.

"Okay, let's go!" yelled Rika; as they set off at very fast pace, at least three times faster than before.

--

**08:30 UTC**

**T-010000**

Meanwhile, about 60 miles away, yet on the same level, a small group of Digimon and Humans sat near a large rock formation. A few of them looked upwards towards the blue orb in the sky, normally referred to as the earth orb by those who dwelled below it. One of the humans, with brown hair pointed upwards and swept to one side and an odd outfit, almost in a modern-medieval style, with leather straps, a grey shirt, green-gray trousers with a pair of brown shorts on top, a red scarf tied around the neck, and a pair of white sneakers with red tongues, sat quietly with his back up against his partner's. The partner in question was a small dull blue dinosaur with cream markings and a fish-fin like tail, with three toed and clawed feet and hands, who was just as quiet as his partner.

Not quiet however, was a small white and purple blob with two feet and large green eyes, a small pink blob with tiny angel-like wings, and a small purple imp with a white face, who were currently playing piggy-in-the-middle with a small rock. And guess who was in the middle?

"Oh come on, you've got wings MarineAngemon, and the cheesepuff eating blob can float on his ears…somehow. This isn't fair" complained the purple imp. MarineAngemon giggled.

"You look pretty silly complaining like that Impmon…" Calumon laughed. Impmon continued to moan while Calumon tossed the rock upwards for MarineAngemon to catch. MarineAngemon cheered using his normal limited vocabulary.

Meanwhile, away from the three, a large cube-like rust coloured robot rested against the wall. It had a large rotatable handle on the front, and small eyes (or the robotic equivalent) near the top in a small enclosed dark area on the front. It had short, stumpy legs, arms extending from both sides, and a set of jets on the back for movement in the air. The robot was largely inactive at the time, and it seemed to be waiting for something.

Near the robot was a young boy of around 13 years of age with blue hair, who also appeared to be at least part-Chinese by his skin tone. He wore a brown undershirt and black trousers, with an orange zipped jacked over the top. A pair of white wristbands adorned his wrists, and he had grey sneakers with yellow ends and tongues. He was currently looking at the screen of a small PDA-like black device. Near him sat two small dog-bunny-like Digimon. The first was creamy-white coloured, with green markings on the ends of his long ears, below his neck and on his hands and feet. He had two black circular eyes, with a single horn on the top of his head. The other dog-bunny was similar, but was a brown-cream colour instead of creamy-white, and had pink markings rather than cream. She had three horns on her head, one larger like the other dog-bunny, and two to each side and below slightly that were smaller, making an overall triangle formation. They both sat around, doing very little, but whilst the pink-eared one was seemingly content with doing nothing, the green one acted bored.

"Henry, I'm so bored. Why couldn't your dad have sent the arc sooner?" he moaned. Henry, the boy with the orange jacket, turned to his partner and scolded him.

"Terriermon, you know that if that were to happen we wouldn't have a chance in hell of Rika and Takato escaping along with us."

"I know I know, but still…sooooo bored…" Terriermon said, continuing to moan. She spun around in a circle a few times, before jumping onto Henry's shoulder and peering down at the D-Nav.

"Can you get Tetris on that thing?" he asked inquisitively, but still jokingly.

"No" came the blunt reply, dampening Terriermon's cheerful spirits.

"So what are you doing?"

"Keeping an eye on the time" was the still-blunt reply. The display counted down.

**T-005400...T-005359…T-005358…**

"You know Henry; it's not going to do anything interesting." Terriermon asked, honestly not understanding his Tamer's concern. His Tamer sighed.

"I'm sorry Terriermon, but I'm really getting concerned about Rika and Takato. The display says that they've sped up a bit, but I really can't tell at the moment if they'll make it here in time." Henry said, his voice serious and full of concern.

"Momentai. There's nothing you can do…" Terriermon said, as he slipped his ears over Henry's eyes playfully. "…so don't worry about it."

Henry pushed Terriermon's ears out of the way. "That's the problem…I feel like I should be able to do something…" he replied, still concerned. Terriermon rolled down Henry's front in a ball with his ears tucked around him and onto the ground in front of Henry.

"Sometimes you've just got to Momentai Henry…we can't help at the moment, but we may be able to help later…relax, Takato'll find some crazy way out of this, I'm sure he's thinking of one right now…" he said comfortingly, but jokingly on the last part.

"I guess you're right…" Henry sighed in defeat.

* * *

**REAL WORLD**

**Hypnos, Floor 29, Tokyo Metropolitan Building**

**17:55 JST**

**T-003500**

Janyuu stepped out of the lift and into the lift lobby. Heading through the cafeteria, he noticed that it was unusually empty. The sun was beginning to set and darkness was beginning to descend on the city of Tokyo. Riley walked up to him.

"I've telephoned their parents and informed them of the bioemergence site for the Arc" she said, reporting the facts bluntly.

"Good, I guess I'll need to head there too myself, but first of all I want to check that everything is okay up here." Janyuu said, gesturing to the control room. Riley nodded. Janyuu followed her to the control room. The doors hissed open and Janyuu stepped into the…calmness. Everything was quiet; it seemed as if it was a normal quiet day. He noticed that there was only one other Monster Maker here, Shibumi, along with Yamaki, Tally and obviously Riley.

"Hey Tao, looking forward to the big event?" asked Shibumi.

"Yes, but it's oddly quiet here. Where are the others?" Janyuu asked.

"They had other arrangements, but they submitted their code right on time. I'm going to stay here and supervise the smooth running of this, while you can head off and meet your son" he replied. Janyuu nodded at the last part, he had not planned not to. He turned to look at the screen and the large digits on it, along with a map of the D-Arc's route. Shibumi filled him in on the details.

"It should reach the Digital World in 15 minutes, and will arrive on the ground 10 minutes later. We've just got to hope that they are all onboard when it finally leaves the Digital World 10 minutes after that."

Janyuu nodded. "I just hope they all make it."

* * *

**DIGITAL WORLD**

**Lowest Level**

**09:03 JST**

**T-002700**

The yellow fox continued to race across the desert.

"Not far now, eh Takato?" Rika said to her 'boyfriend'.

"Erm…yeah…" Takato replied, nervously.

"What's eating ya?" she asked curiously.

"Nothing, just worried about being late."

"Don't worry, we'll make it at this rate" Rika reassured Takato. Takato nodded a nervous nod, but he was also annoyed with himself for lying just now.

'_She'd kill me if she knew what I was really thinking about. Now, back to thinking…'_

You see, our favourite Gogglehead was currently mulling over an interesting problem. You see, Takato can be…a bit brash, and run into things without thinking or being entirely sure of himself. And this had lead to his current situation, where the pivotal question in his head was…

'_Do I love her back? I mean, we kissed and all, but I wasn't entirely sure of myself. Sure I like her, but…what's stopping me from being with her…what's my problem?'_

Despite thinking he was ignorant; however, Takato actually knew exactly what the problem was.

'_Oh who am I kidding, the problem is Jeri. I mean, I saved her from a computer program gone haywire, I even confessed my feelings to her at one point…but…do I love her either? I mean, it may just be a crush. A meaningless one. I mean, I feel really deeply for Rika, whereas Jeri, well, she's kind and nice and all but…do I love her? I think I'd be too worried of losing our current relationship. And what would I tell Rika anyway? That I had just been unsure when I kissed her! Argggh, this is driving me crazy. I should look at this more objectively, like Henry would do. Right, first the upsides: Jeri is kind, nice and cares for me. Rika is beautiful, cares for me and can be kind, and she is deeply in love with me. Okay, maybe the downsides will show me something more. Rika can be stubborn, uncaring and violent. Jeri…Jeri's…'_

Takato tried to think of a way to put it, but eventually he gave up and went for the simplest option.

'…_she's not Rika…'_ Takato thought. He sighed. He'd need to do a lot more thinking later, but for now he realised he should concentrate on the task at hand. "How long have we got?" he asked his 'girlfriend'.

"About twenty-two minutes. Kyubimon, we really need to pick up the pace!" said Rika to her partner.

"I'll try my best Rika…" was the response from her partner.

* * *

**09:10 UTC**

**T-002000**

"It's here!" exclaimed Ryo, prompting everyone to look up. A small object appeared in the sky, and a set of tracks of light quickly formed between them and it. The object moved along the tracks.

"But Rika and Takato aren't here yet" said Henry worried. "And it looks like we're running out of time here!"

"Well, at times I've hated that girl…but I still wouldn't want her to miss the arc…I just hope they make it in time" Ryo said.

'_Well, it is your fault that she ran away…'_ Henry thought. _'But she can be compulsive…'_

The group continued to watch as the Arc lowered to the ground.

* * *

**09:16 UTC**

**T-001400**

"Look, over there…it's the tracks, and the D-Arc is coming down." Takato said in surprise, pointing to the horizon.

"We're running out of time…" Kyubimon commented. She started to slow down.

"Kyubimon, why are you slowing down?" Rika asked her partner.

"I'm sorry; the card's effects are wearing off."

Rika frowned. "At this rate, we might not make it."

"I'll try my hardest Rika…"

* * *

**REAL WORLD**

**Katou Residence, West Shinjuku**

**18:18 JST**

**T-001200**

Jeri lay on her bed, holding her D-Arc above her head. She stared at the static-covered screen and pondered. About the missing Tamers, where they could be, and Leomon. Today, she had been reminded of him, and she cursed herself for letting herself forget him. She had been lying there for several hours now, and despite calls from her parents to check she was okay, she had been all but unresponsive. A messy hair was pushed away from her face. She sighed.

She had long come to terms with the fact that, even if the others were to get their Digimon back somehow, she would still be without Leomon. That was not what bothered her. What bothered her was more complex than that.

If Leomon were to come back, she'd have to tell him about what had happened while he was…away. And this fear gripped her more than any other. How could she admit her fall into depression, into despair, into being made a puppet herself much like the dog puppet that used to preside on her hand, to her own partner, without making him feel guilt for leaving and causing it?

Jeri recalled back to a particular item she had seen at Hypnos. It was a CD, a backup disc, and it sat on a shelf in the main control room. This was not important. The thing that disturbed her most about it was that it had the words 'Project: Resurrection' written on it. This could've meant anything, but the general lack of the core of the Tamer's group, and the unwillingness by most of the parents to talk whilst she was there, made her think that there was more to it than that. Her mind had come up with a theory of what was going on, and, despite her reluctance to tell her fellow Tamers, Kazu and Kenta, about it, it seemed to make sense.

Rika, Takato, Henry and Ryo had gone to the Digital World, to retrieve their Digimon, and when they returned, Hypnos planned to use this 'Project: Resurrection' to reform Leomon from Impmon's data.

Jeri sighed, whatever happened, the next few days would be tough. However, seemingly confirming her theory, the D-Arc flashed into action. She was enthusiastic at first, but a glance at the now illuminated screen showed static. However, a fizzled compass appeared holographically out of the D-Arc. Jeri stood up, and, noticing the general direction of the D-Arc, towards the park, decided to follow it.

"I'm going to the park Mum…" she said to her stepmother.

"Ok, have fun dear…" was the reply as Jeri ran out of the door.

* * *

**DIGITAL WORLD**

**Lowest Level**

**09:20 UTC**

**T-001000**

The Arc slammed into the sand of the lowest level of the Digital World. The front hatch of the large white machine opened, and the Digimon and humans began to enter. Ryo and Monodramon headed to the back to look at the control panel.

'_Maybe we can delay it again just like last time'_ was his reasoning, although he was unsure of whether it would work in practice.

Henry and Terriermon were the last left outside the arc. Terriermon jumped onto the edge of the arc.

"Come on Henry, let's get onboard before it leaves us." As if to reaffirm his point, the arc began to lift.

"But Rika and Takato aren't back yet…we have to wait for them."

"But Henry, if the arc leaves without us, we'll be stuck here."

"But they'll be stuck here otherwise…" Henry said angry. He kicked the sand. The Arc had now ascended to be above his shoulders.

"Henry, please, get on!" Terriermon said in alarm. Henry took one last look out to the distance, and saw dust rising, and something moving.

"Look, it must be Kyubimon" he said, cheering up.

"Henry, grab on!" Terriermon yelled, interrupting his upturn in mood. Henry quickly grabbed onto the edge of the arc, and looked out from the back.

"I hope they reach us in time…" Henry said to his partner.

"Momentai, they'll make it…" his partner replied. The clock on the D-Nav flashed up.

**T-043000**

* * *

**09:27 UTC**

**T-030000**

"The Arc's moving!" Takato said in surprise. The arc had now lifted well above the distance where they could be helped up, and it was accelerating.

"We have to hurry; otherwise even jumping onboard will be impossible" Rika added in alarm.

Kyubimon arrived below the arc and dedigivolved in tiredness. Takato and Rika saw Henry peering out.

"You made it!" he shouted down happily.

"It's far too high…" Rika said to Takato.

"Grab my hand!" Renamon said. The two tamers and a Digimon did as she said. She leapt into the air. Henry watched them come closer and closer.

"I can't watch!" Terriermon said, and retreated inside the arc so not as to see the potential failure of the attempt. Henry continued to watch.

Renamon noticed that they were losing speed, and so did Henry.

"They're going to fall!" he said in alarm. He considered retreating inside the arc, but couldn't take his eyes away. He would soon be glad he didn't. Renamon started to fall, but Takato flew straight past her.

Flew was not a metaphor in this case. Takato literally flew. Henry stared in shock, rubbing his eyes, as did Rika from her position below Takato, at Takato. Or rather, his back.

Takato was surrounded by a red aura. But this was the least alarming thing.

On Takato's back, was a huge pair of wings. The wings were red, but the brightness of the aura made them hard to see clearly. They appeared to be more like a dragon's wings, although they were also like an angels, with feathers but linked with a bony main structure.

Takato, Rika, Renamon and Guilmon hurtled through the entrance into the Arc. Takato's wings vanished before anyone else saw, and he landed with the precision of someone used to doing so. Takato's eyes flashed red for a second.

"Thank god you made it!" said Henry, but he was still noticeably in shock about the wings.

Takato could swear he heard some words in his head, spoken by a voice both like and unlike his own.

"**Yeah baby, no-one beats CHAOS!!"**

Rika heard a voice in her head too, with a voice similar but different to her own.

"**Stupid show off…"**

The Arc rose through a gap in the solid-like ceiling of the digital world. Up in the air, following them, was a large white demonic beast, which flew through the gap, before it closed.

TO BE CONTINUED…

* * *

Ah, a fantastic final mystery to end this first arc of the story. The second and final arc to this story will be much shorter than this one, with around 3 or 4 chapters, and then there will be an epilogue. There are still some surprises and mystery coming, a lot of which that won't be solved until later books.

If you enjoyed it (and even if you didn't) don't forget to review, but constructively please.

Next time…

Who on earth are these voices? Are they really going to resurrect Leomon? What is the identity of the white demonic beast? And most importantly, will Takato figure out his 'big question'?

Find out in 'Reality Return', Chapter 9 of Dimensions Book One: Links.


	9. Reality Return

Here we are in Chapter 9. After the 'Chaos' of the previous chapter, it'll calm down a bit this chapter. For a while. A very short while at that.

Links isn't over yet…

Oh, and by the way, the counter is down to when the Arc arrives in the real world, not when it leaves the digital world.

DISCLAIMER: Blazing Chaos does not own Digimon, but does own the OCs introduced in this story and later stories.

* * *

**DIMENSIONS**

_**BOOK ONE**_

_Links_

By Blazing Chaos

* * *

**CHAPTER 9**

_Reality Return  
_

* * *

**REAL WORLD**

**Central Fountain, Shinjuku Park**

**18:29 JST**

**T-000130**

A young girl wearing a green and cream dress ran through the trees in the park. She had brown hair, with a pigtail on the left hand side. Held in her hand out in front of her was a small white device with a small screen, surrounded by a yellow circle. The screen had static filling it, but above it radiated a holographic compass, which the girl appeared to be following. The girl ran fast, clearly eager to reach her destination.

The girl reached the fountain in the middle of the park. To her surprise, she saw various adults, and several children standing around the fountain. There were seven adults, who seemed to be standing in three pairs of two as well as a single man with blonde hair, black glasses and a black suit. In terms of children, there was a taller one of around 13 years of age with brown hair (and a green visor on it), a black shirt and grey pants, the black shirt having a large yellow emblem on it. Next to him, was a shorter boy, but who also appeared to be the same age, with neat green hair split in the middle, an orange shirt with a gray jacket, and brown pants. They watched eagerly towards the fountain, as did everyone else. Near one of the parents, there was a small girl of around 8 years of age. She had short pink hair with a pair of pigtails, a pink and white shirt, and dull pink shorts. She clung to her father's leg.

"Huh, what are all of you doing here?" the girl with the green dress asked. "There's going to be a wild Digimon here!" she said, alarmed.

"What do you mean?" asked the boy with the black shirt. Before, Jeri could reply, the girl with the pink hair pointed at a spot near the fountain.

"Look daddy, hewre it cwomes!" she said, tugging on her fathers trousers. Jeri looked where she pointed. There was a glowing white spot on the ground. The ground seemed to sink into it and a hole appeared and grew, with blue energy pulsing around it. Suddenly, an orb in the hole swelled in size, before it exploded upwards in a geyser-like formation. Fog began to fill the area, as a huge wind blasted into the humans around it, ruffling their hair. Jeri looked on in shock. Suddenly, there were several black figures that appeared in the fog. Jeri saw a very large figure with wings, but when she looked again, it had gone, and so she dismissed it as a trick of her eyes. She began to be able to make out the other figures. She stared on in shock as Takato Matsuki, Rika Nonaka, Henry Wong and Ryo Akiyama exited the fog, along with their partners, Guilmon, Renamon, Terriermon and Monodramon, along with various other Digimon, Lopmon, MarineAngemon, Guardromon, Calumon and Impmon. She watched as Kazu, Kenta and Suzie were reunited with her Digimon. She smiled a sad smile, and looked at the ground.

"Why are you sad?" asked a high pitched voice. She looked down to see the small white blob with purple ears known as Calumon, who had his head tilted and a sad expression.

"I'm not sad…" Jeri replied, and Calumon leapt into her hands. His normal happy expression had completely vanished, and his expression now matched Jeri's. Jeri watched as the others were reunited.

Impmon noticed the absence of his partners, Ai and Mako. He frowned. However, Janyuu, Henry and Suzie's father, reassured him.

"I'm afraid that their parents were busy and wouldn't let them go alone, but I know that they were said to be ecstatic at hearing of your return" said the blue haired man.

"That'll be great" came the reply from the Imp. He turned to face the rest of the group. "Smell ya later folks" he said, before running away down a path, leaping onto a wall and leaving view.

However, of the sets of parents and children hugging, there was one noticeably absent.

Rika and Rumiko Nonaka stared at each other. Neither wanted to make the first move. Seiko Hata walked over and placed her hand on Rumiko's shoulder, and Takato did the same, although the Rika. Rika looked into his eyes and nodded.

Rika and Rumiko ran towards each other and entered into a deep hug.

"I'm sorry…" Rika whispered.

"No, I'm sorry…I've been ignoring you…" replied Rumiko.

Neither cried, and the hug was short lived. But it had made a big impact emotionally on both.

"I love you mum…" Rika said to her mother.

"I love you Rika came the reply…"

Rika looked across to Takato.

'_I love you Takato…'_ she thought.

* * *

**18:40 JST**

Most of the parents and children had left for home, apart from a few. Henry and Terriermon were talking to his sister Rinchei and his mother Mayumi. Suzie ran around playing with Calumon and Lopmon, whilst Janyuu was talking to Yamaki and checking the site of the bioemergence. Guilmon had fallen asleep earlier and, rather than carry him home, they had resorted to simply leaving him in the hideout.

However, one person was left separate from the rest. Jeri sat on a wall, staring at the ground. She was deep in thought.

'_Everyone's happy but me…but…even if Leomon were here, how would I explain what happened to me? I couldn't bear doing so...'_

Henry noticed Jeri was being very quiet. He excused himself from his conversation with his mother and sister and walked over to sit next to Jeri.

"Are you okay Jeri?" Henry asked.

"Yeah…" she said solemnly.

"Are you sure…you don't sound okay…"

"I am…" Jeri said, biting her lip. Henry sighed.

"I know that you miss Leomon and all, but my father's come up with a solution…"

"NO!" Jeri yelled, surprising the blue haired boy and attracting the attention of the others. They all turned to look. "I can't face him again, not after what happened to me…" she yelled. Henry went to reassure her, but Jeri pushed his hand away. "Just leave me alone…" she said quietly, before walking away down the path.

Henry watched on with a mix of confusion and sadness.

"Dadwy, what's wong with hewr?" Suzie asked her father.

"Don't worry Suzie…" he replied. He turned to Yamaki and whispered to him something inaudible. Yamaki nodded.

* * *

**Wong Residence, West Shinjuku**

**08:30 JST**

**22****nd**** October 2007**

A few rays of light reached Henry's retinas and he slowly woke up. After the chaos of the previous few days, this morning seemed very calm. As usual, Terriermon lay near him, in this case near his feet, and as usual, he was talking in his sleep.

"Phew…I escaped Suzie…oh no, Rika, not the frying pan again…" he muttered. Henry smiled and tapped him on the forehead with his foot. His partner woke with a start, and was very confused, thinking that Rika had battered him over the head with the frying pan. "Ow…erm…Hey Henry, where's Rika and the frying pan?"

"Having the same dream again?"

"Yeah…god, it scares the hell out of me" the dog bunny replied.

"How does it end?"

"Except for just now, it normally ends with Rika stopping before she hits me and talking to herself."

"What does she say?" Henry said, now genuinely interested in the dream.

"She just says…'Harmony?' and looks around, like she's looking for something…" Terriermon replied.

"Harmony?"

"Yeah"

"Odd…"

"You're telling me…"

Henry stood up and began to change into his usual attire. Brown trousers, grey undershirt and orange jacket were put on. The D-Arc was clipped onto the trousers.

"Not expecting a quiet day?" Terriermon questioned, noticing the D-Arc.

"Nope, just force of habit" Henry replied. Terriermon nodded in response. Having finished changing, Henry sat on the edge of the bed next to his partner.

"So where are we going today?" he asked.

"Well, I'm not sure. I haven't got a class, but I think I'll pop by to let Sensei know I'm alright. Then, maybe we'll go to the park, and then who knows?" Terriermon again nodded in response. A thought occurred to him.

"What are we going to do about Jeri?" he asked. Henry was surprised at the question, mainly because of its source.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't treat me like I'm an idiot Henry. I know you're concerned about her after what happened last night" he answered matter-of-factly.

"I know, but I don't think we can do anything"

"Hello! What happened to 'I feel useless sitting here doing nothing' Henry from yesterday?" Terriermon asked. Henry looked at him for a while, trying to think of a response. Fortunately for him but unfortunately for our favourite dog-bunny, Suzie interrupted.

"Henwy, bweakfast is weady!" she said childishly. Henry leapt up in shock.

"Suzie, what have I told you about knocking first? I could've been getting changed" he said annoyed. Suzie simply laughed and jumped away from the room, giggling. Henry sighed and headed to the table, followed by his partner, who was annoyed at his partner's dodging of the question. However, all traces of annoyance on his face vanished when he arrived at the table.

"Alright, so what's for breakfast?!" he said cheerfully.

* * *

**West Shinjuku Martial Arts School**

**09:10 JST**

"Henry, my stomach aches…" said the green dog-bunny from his place on his partners shoulder. He was frowning and rubbing his belly, and he looked ill.

"I told you you shouldn't have eaten so much" replied his Tamer scoldingly.

"But Henry, it's food!" Terriermon said enthusiastically, leaping to the ground below. They were stood at the door to a dojo. Henry sighed and knocked on the door. After a short while, an old man, wearing a traditional Sensei outfit answered the door.

"Ah Henry, good to see you. Please, come in…" the Sensei said, gesturing for them to enter, and he held the door while he did so.

"Thank you Sensei…" Henry said with much respect in his voice as he walked through the door. Terriermon, on the other hand…

"Cheers Pops!" he joked, and followed his Tamer, who turned around to scold him. His sensei, however, stopped him.

"Do not worry Henry. Your partner's quick wit is one of his defining features, holding it back would be wasteful. It will also help him with his challenges to come…" the Sensei said. Terriermon and Henry looked at him with a look of confused. Terriermon simply shook his head.

"Well, I normally just say Momentai, but that works much better" he said, grinning, and he walked into the dojo, soon followed by his tamer and the Sensei.

"So, why did you come to see me today? Do you wish for an extra lesson?"

"Not today Sensei. I just popped by to make sure you know we all got back okay…" he said to the Sensei. The Sensei nodded.

"That is good to hear."

Terriermon glared at his Tamer. Henry noticed the glare and sighed. "And…I need some advice…"

"On what subject?"

"Girls of course!" Terriermon joked, leaping up and down.

"Terriermon!" scolded his partner. The Sensei shook his head but decided not to comment.

"Momentai Hen! It is about girls after all!" continued Terriermon.

"Yeah, but the way you say it implies it is about a completely different subject!"

The sensei cleared his throat. Henry sighed and turned to him, and continued to explain what he needed advice on.

"You see…there is this girl who is a fellow tamer. She lost her partner a while back and she fell into depression because of it, assisted by an outside force. She now may have a chance of getting her partner back, but she dismissed it, saying "that she can't face him again, not after what happened to her". What I want to know is, how can I help her now?"

The sensei sat and thought for a short while before replying.

"It sounds like your friend feels that her partner will feel guilty for making her depressed, and so she doesn't want to burden her partner with that. On the other hand, it sounds like she wants to see him again." Henry nodded. "I think you should try to reassure her that when she gets her partner back, they can talk about it and she can make him realise that he's not guilty, otherwise she'll always regret losing her chance." Henry nodded again. He stood up and bowed, as did the Sensei.

"Thank you for the advice Sensei."

"Not a problem" replied the Sensei.

* * *

**Shinjuku Park, near Guilmon's Hideout**

**09:41 JST**

Henry and his partner, who was once again riding on his shoulder, arrived at the park.

"Hmm, it's quiet here today…no sign of Jeri either" noted his partner. Henry nodded. Suddenly, he heard footsteps approaching from paths to both sides of him, and a voice.

"Hey Rika!"

Henry leapt into a bush, Terriermon crashing down next to him.

"Henry, are you insan…?!" Terriermon said, before being muffled by his tamer.

"Keep quiet…" whispered the blue haired boy. Terriermon gave him a look of confusion, but did as he said.

"Hey Gogglehead" replied the redhead. They met, unbeknownst to them right in front of the bush Henry was hiding in. Takato and Rika pulled each other into a deep embrace and a kiss. Henry stared on shocked. Despite his shock, he noticed Rika feeling around the back of Takato's shirt near the top. Terriermon looked on speechless.

'_Okay, this is a big surprise…' thought Henry. 'But why is she feeling his shirt…unless…'_ Henry thought back to yesterday's surprising events. _'Did…did she see them too? I thought I was imagining them but…maybe they were real!'_

Rika and Takato finally broke away from the embrace.

"Did you bring it?" Rika asked Takato eagerly.

"Yeah…" Takato said and reached into his pockets. Terriermon watched with wide eyes, but was disappointed when 'it' turned out to be a memory stick. Henry made a mental note to talk to Terriermon about his 'potty mind' later.

"Cheers, I finally get it back." Rika said, happy and smiling, another thing which surprised Henry.

"Yeah, but what it says is hardly a secret any more…" Takato joked.

"Yeah, about that…I'm not really sure we should 'go public' as it were yet…" Rika replied, looking uncomfortable.

"Eh? Why not?"

"Oh come on Takato, you know how much my mother would tease me about it, not to mention the moron twins, and of course the bunny." Rika said, looking angry at the last part. Terriermon gulped, although thankfully they didn't hear him.

"I see…okay Rika, we'll be quiet for now…" Takato replied, understanding her concern.

"Thanks for caring…" Rika replied. She pulled him into an embrace and kiss again. Terriermon was positively gagging by now. The kiss soon ended, and Rika smiled. "Well, I'm going to see a play with my mother and grandma today, so I'll see ya later Honey…" Rika added, playing with her hair, before turning to leave. Takato nodded.

"Love ya" he replied, and watched her leave. He sighed, and headed up the steps to the hideout. Henry decided to use it as his chance to get out of his hiding place. He picked up Terriermon and crawled away from the path. When he was a reasonable distance away to be out of sight, he stood up and walked to a path. He shook the leaves off of himself, and headed towards the hideout.

* * *

**Shinjuku Park, Guilmon's Hideout**

**09:46 JST**

Takato sat against the back wall of the hideout and thought to himself. He had already given bread to his partner, who was now scoffing it down at what would be an alarming pace to anyone unfamiliar with him. He was still unsure of himself, and he needed time to think. He wished that someone would just tell him what to do, but he knew that was unlikely. Well, for now at least. He began to think, but was interrupted.

"Hey Takato" came a familiar voice. Henry Wong entered the hideout.

"Hey Henry, Hey Terriermon" Takato replied.

"Hey Terriermon, Hey Henry" Guilmon also said, greeting the newcomers.

"Yay, food!" Terriermon said enthusiastically, before jumping down to steal some of Guilmon's bread.

"So, what brings you here then?" Takato asked.

"Boredom, and I also thought that I might see some of you guys here. You?" Henry replied.

"Same" Takato replied, not knowing that Henry knew it was a blatant lie. Suddenly, all of them, both humans and Digimon, shivered for a second.

"What was that all about?" Terriermon asked, confused.

"I'm not sure, but it got strangely colder…" Takato replied. "Which reminds me, I have to go help out at the bakery…" he added, getting up to leave.

"Alright. I think I'm going to visit Hypnos with my dad, check everything is alright." Henry said, keeping quiet what he knew and picking up Terriermon, piece of bread in hand. Takato nodded. Suddenly, a thought dawned on him.

"Hey…are we like…missing school or something?!" he said, eyes widening.

"Nah, I asked my dad, we get the day off for getting over the jetlag and the effects of going to the Digital World" said Henry. Takato relaxed. "The others, on the other hand…" Henry added, grinning. Takato laughed.

"See ya later Henry. Come on Guilmon, my mum sorted out a place for you to sleep in my room"

"Yay!" replied the red dino, as he followed his partner out of the hideout.

Henry and Terriermon watched them go. When they were out of earshot, Henry sighed. Terriermon finally exploded.

"Holy crap! Rika and Takato are in love! I mean RIKA AND TAKATO! The angry bitch and the obnoxious Gogglehead!" he yelled at his partner, jumping around.

"Terriermon, mind your language"

"Momentai Henry! This is far too big for politeness! We have to tell EVERYONE!!"

Henry grabbed his partner.

"Look Terriermon, we're going to keep quiet about this too. This is a very personal thing between those two and we can't intrude."

Terriermon continued to grin, before noticing Henry's serious expression. He sighed and his grin vanished.

"Alright…now, to Hypnos!"

* * *

**Hypnos Experiment Room, Floor B2, Tokyo Metropolitan Building**

**11:35 JST**

Henry was sitting on one of the many seats around the area. On the chair next to him to one side was Terriermon, watching with interest, and on the other side was his father's jacket. In the room, were several of the monster makers, Yamaki and Riley, his sister Suzie and Lopmon, sitting two and three chairs respectively away from him, and a familiar Imp, who currently, despite his usual confident nature, was now quaking in fear as he stared at the large machine in front of him. His Tamers had offered to come, but he had told them he didn't want them there, but they could wish him luck.

The machine in front of him was huge. It had two tapered points on either side, pointing straight down at a circle marked out on the floor. And he was expected to stand under one, whilst Leomon would be resurrected under the other.

Speaking of Leomon, his former, and hopefully future, partner Jeri was notably absent. After the trouble from the previous day, and under Sensei's advice, Henry had advised them to continue without her.

"Is the DDNA filter in place?" Shibumi AKA Gorou Mizuno asked.

"Yes, all filters are set up and tested" replied Dolphin aka Rob McCoy.

"Good, looks like it'll work well then" said Curley aka Rai Aishuwarya.

"Okay, experiment will take place at one two decimal one five hours…" said Babel.

Impmon quaked in fear.

'_Okay, I can do this…sure there's a 30 failure of everything going wrong, but that's small…who am I kidding, I'm petrified.'_

* * *

**Matsuki Residence**

**11:38 JST**

Takato was working the front of the shop, while his parents were making bread behind. He sighed, he was bored and he wanted to see Rika and Henry when he finished his shift, although he knew that his mother wouldn't let him off so easily since he had been absent for a few days. At least it had given him time to think about his current situation. Unfortunately, he was no closer to a solution to his current problem. Takato was currently serving a customer.

"That'll be 300¥ thank you" Takato said to the man.

"Cheers," he replied, and left the door. Takato sighed. The phone rang. "Hello, Matsuki residence and bakery?"

"_**Is that Takato Matsuki?"**_

"Yes. Is that Rika's grandmother?"

"_**Yes. Have you seen Rika today?"**_

"Yeah, I saw her about two hours ago, why?"

"_**Rika didn't turn up to the play we were all going to."**_

"WHAT?!"

TO BE CONTINUED…

* * *

Well, we're set up for a good end to the story here. There will be either one or two chapters remaining in this story, along with an epilogue, and then we'll be on to Dimensions Book Two: Powers.

Please review if you liked this chapter (or if not), since it helps me write better chapters.

Next time…

Where are Rika and Renamon? Will Project: Resurrection work as planned? And last but not least, will Leomon and Jeri get over any guilt they have?

Find out in 'Hello Tamer', Chapter 10 of Dimensions Book One: Links.


	10. Hello Tamer

This is Chapter 10. Our story is coming to a close, but fear not weary reader. There is an epilogue and several more books yet. The next book is called Powers and there will be a preview at the end of this chapter for Dimensions Book Two: Powers, the next story in the saga.

DISCLAIMER: Blazing Chaos does not own Digimon, but does own the OCs introduced in this story and later stories.

Just to note (1), (2), etc. are authors notes that will be mentioned at the end of the chapter.

* * *

**DIMENSIONS**

_**BOOK ONE**_

_Links_

By Blazing Chaos

* * *

**CHAPTER 10**

_Hello Tamer  
_

* * *

**REAL WORLD**

**Matsuki Residence, West Shinjuku**

**11:40 JST**

Takato listened intently to Rika's grandmother on the other end of the phone.

"_**She didn't turn up, and Renamon doesn't know anything about it. We're worried something has happened to her. Hold on…"**_

Takato waited, whilst he heard some fumbling around. He then heard a quiet voice in the background.

"_**Try to hold onto it with your claw…there you go!" **_Hearing this, Takato was confused, until he heard the next voice.

"_**Hello, Takato?"**_ It was Renamon, hence the difficulty handing a phone.

"Yes?"

"_**I'm going to head to the park, get Henry to come too with Guilmon. We have to find her as soon as possible"**_ Takato nodded in response, before realising that it was a phone conversation.

"Okay, see you there. Bye…" Takato said, placing the receiver down. "Guilmon?"

"Yes?" asked the red dino.

"We're going to find Rika, but first I have to call someone. Can you tell my parents?"

"Okay Takato"

Takato picked up the handset again, and dialled a number.

* * *

**Konaka Residence, Shibuya**

**11:50 JST**

Chiaki Konaka (1) slammed his hands down on the keyboard of the computer. For the five-hundredth time in the past day, he had tried to log in to the Digital Watch website, and once again it had failed. His username, Digifan29 continued to be unable to connect, despite the fact that he was one of the moderators of the Digimon activity review site. It had been since that chat the other day, when Yelir had connected, that the problem had started. Despite getting help from the server host, he had still had no chance to connect. He decided to create a new account, despite the fact that he would lose all of his items stored under the old account.

**Create new account:**

**Username: Digifan42**

**Password: Renamon**

**Confirm?**

He clicked the box to confirm it. Suddenly, the website failed to load. He tried to connect again, but it appeared to be down. He slammed the keyboards with his hands again. There was nothing more for it. He'd have to go see the server hoster, who lived in East Shinjuku, where the server was based. Collecting his jacket, he headed out of his bedroom.

"Going out ma" he said, leaving the apartment.

* * *

**Hypnos Experiment Room, Floor B2, Tokyo Metropolitan Building**

**11:41 JST**

Henry continued to watch the project in progress. Terriermon was now bored, and was moaning. Suzie was sleeping.

"Henry, I'm sooooo bored…" Terriermon said, repeating what I just wrote.

Henry ignored him. He noticed Impmon approaching him.

"Hey Impmon," he said, greeting the Imp.

"um…hey Henry…listen…I need to talk to you…" he said. Henry nodded. "You see…I'm really scared…I mean really really scared…I've never been so scared in my life…" Impmon said, his voice tense and worried.

Henry realised that he had to reassure Impmon. "Impmon, remember that these people are extremely good at what they do. They are testing absolutely everything before they do it. And remember that you are doing this for Jeri…"

"Then why isn't she here?!" Impmon asked bluntly. Henry thought for a while, but couldn't think of a reply.

"I really don't know Impmon…" Impmon sighed in response. Henry's phone rang.

"Hello?"

"_**Hey Henry. I've got no time to explain, but you have to meet me at the park now. Cheers"**_ came the voice quickly. It was Takato's. Henry tried to respond, but he hadn't had a chance beyond saying "Hello?" He sighed.

"Well, it must be important…Terriermon, come on, looks like there is something to do to cheer you up!"

"Yay…" Terriermon said, as his Tamer excused himself. Impmon watched the two leave.

'_Fantastic, now I don't even have them for reassurance…'_ he thought.

* * *

**East Shinjuku**

**11:46 JST**

Chiaki Konaka turned a corner to see a huge fog covering the area where he was heading. People were staring at it, but seemed to be dismissing it as a simple unusual weather condition.

"Wow, odd weather...Right, now I think it's this way…"

He ran into the fog. Suddenly, the temperature dropped considerably. A yellow blur flashed past him.

"What happened to the sun?" he noted, seeing the sun vanish in the fog and the only illumination remaining being the street lamps. Suddenly, the fog began to freeze. Chiaki Konaka stared on in horror as he saw a huge demonic beast approaching him along the road. That was the last thing he would see for several hours.

The ice completely covered the area. Renamon turned around, having just escaped the fog, and stared on in shock.

"Rumiko! Seiko! It's frozen. They're frozen…" she said, still surprised at the supernatural event. "I need to get to the park…" she said afterwards, finally snapping out of it.

* * *

**Shinjuku Park**

**11:52 JST**

Henry Wong paced up and down. Takato had just told him of Rika's disappearance, and he was still unable to believe it.

"So, where do we look for her?" Henry asked a Takato, who had his head against the wall in sadness and frustration.

"No idea…" the Gogglehead replied. Henry noticed a tear run down his face.

"Hey, what's up Takato, this is affecting you more than I thought it would?" he asked. Of course, he knew the reason, but he wanted to hear what Takato would say.

"Of course this is affecting me! She's my…a very good friend."

Henry nodded. This was all he was going to get out of Takato. "Well, we need somewhere to start looking? Anything on the compass?"

Takato took out his D-Arc. It completely lacked a compass.

"Hmm, odd, no bioemergence" Henry said, curious at the odd event. "So either the Digimon is already here, or Rika ran aw…"

Takato stopped him with a look of disgust at the fact his friend had even suggested it. "But she and Rumiko forgave each other? Why would she do something like that?"

"Isn't it obvious, its Ri…" Terriermon said, more cheerfully than them, until Renamon appeared out of nowhere and surprised him, Guilmon and Takato. The reason Henry hadn't jumped was because of his martial arts training.

"Takato, Henry, East Shinjuku has frozen!" a desperate Renamon said.

"What?!" came the chorused reply.

* * *

**East Shinjuku**

**12:03 JST**

"Whoa!" came the chorused saying from Terriermon, Guilmon, Takato and Henry when they saw the ice wall. But it was more than a wall. It stretched as far as the eye could see, and they could see people frozen in the ice. People stood around staring in shock at the wall. But as I said, it was more than just a wall. More correct would be to say that a large portion of East Shinjuku had been frozen. "What could've caused this?" Henry questioned to Renamon.

"I'm not sure. Perhaps a Digimon?" replied the Kitsune.

Takato stared through the ice, shocked by the people in the ice. However, something shocked him more. He noticed an area of the ice lighter than the rest. There was a large dark shadow in this lighter area of the ice. The shadow had large wings and claws, one of which was held up in the air. He noted its familiarity, until the realisation hit him.

"That bastard! But…we killed him? She's in there!" a shocked Takato said, catching the attention of his companions, who turned to look. When they noticed the shadow, they were also shocked.

"IceDevimon!" Renamon said in shock, recalling the events leading up to, during, and after his previous kidnapping attempt.

"I have to save her…I can't let him get her…" Takato panicked. He bashed his hands against the ice in a futile attempt to get through. They began to bleed.

"Let me help Takato" said his partner, as flames lit up his mouth. "PYRO SPHERE" he yelled, as a fireball made a small dent in the wall. Takato sighed at the attempt.

"Takato, use this!" Henry said, passing him a card.

"Okay, worth a shot…**DIGI-MODIFY…Digmon's Drill Activate!**" he yelled. Drills appeared on Guilmon's claws, and he began to drill into the ice. However, it had very little impact, and was halted when the drills broke.

"This is very hard ice…" Henry commented.

"Well duh!" said Terriermon.

"I see you've mastered sarcasm?"

Terriermon nodded and laughed. Henry turned his attention back to the attempts to melt it.

"Okay, let's try Gargomon…" Henry said. "**DIGI-MODIFY…Digivolution Activate!**" he yelled, swiping a Digivolution card through his D-Arc.

**DIGIVOLUTION**

"**Terriermon Digivolve to…Gargomon"**

"GARGO LASERS"

The high-powered blasts hit the ice hard and a large quantity of ice was thrown around, but afterwards, the ice was still intact.

"ROCK BREAKER" Guilmon shouted, rushing towards the most dented part of the wall with his claw, attempting to break it. However, it was not to be. "…ow…Takato, I hurt my claw"

Renamon leapt into the air. "DIAMOND STORM" she yelled, as the shards hit the ice and exploded. However, when the dust cleared, the ice was intact.

"There must be some way to break it" desperately said Henry, who was now sorting through his cards, looking for something that would give them a chance.

An even more desperate Takato was attacking the ice with all his might, all sense having been lost moments ago.

'**Do you want to save her?' **came a voice in his head. He looked around for the source.

'_Who are you? I've heard you before…'_

'**Does it really matter at this moment?'**

'_No, I guess not but…'_

'**Well shut it then. Right, on with the emotional stuff. Do you love her?'**

Takato paused and thought.

'_Well, I think I do. I've always wanted to be there for her, to comfort her, and I guess I have. She is really nice when you see past her façade. Yeah, I love her…I love her a lot…hey, that's my question solves. I mean, she's a really good friend, plus she really looks good, particularly with her hair down, but both ways works fine. She's also good in Digimon battles, and at…'_

'**Okay, I get the idea. You love her…damn, that makes my life a lot more complicated. Stupid Harmony, always screwing up my plans, since the beginning of time…erm, forget that, will you?'**

'_Huh?'_

'**Okay, let's just get down to the immense power thing.'**

'_Huh?'_

The voice sighed.

Henry watched as Takato placed his palms flat on the wall, and his eyes flashed red. Suddenly, a red outline of a tunnel appeared. Ice began to melt and was singed, as Henry watched on in shock. The tunnel was finally formed, and it was perfect. A perfect semi-circle. Takato's eyes flashed red again.

'**There, that do for you?'**

'…'

'**Speechless, or rather, thoughtless, are we? Well, snap to it. I hear a voice!'**

"Okay, what on earth did you just do?" Henry asked. All of his companions were staring on in shock.

"What?" Takato replied, snapping out of his trance.

"All that light…and the burning…how'd you do it?" Renamon asked.

"Um…I'm not sure."

Renamon narrowed her eyes.

'_I have a feeling that something has started…something big, and familiar, but I can't put my finger on it…' _she thought.

"Well come on then, let's go save Rika!" Takato said, changing the subject and heading down through the tunnel, soon followed by the rest of the group. The tunnel was dark, and cold, but they could see light at the end. When they reached it, they stared up at the face which had haunted them so long ago.

* * *

**Hypnos Experiment Room, Floor B2, Tokyo Metropolitan Building**

**12:10 JST**

Impmon stood underneath the large focused electrode. He visibly shook in fear.

"Five minutes till activation…" came a voice.

Impmon gulped.

'_Okay, I'm doing this for Jeri, I'm doing this for Jeri…oh god, I'm so scared!!'_

* * *

**East Shinjuku**

**12:11 JST**

"Ah, my arch-nemesis so to speak…I'm afraid that you may not get in the way of me and my Tamer…" came the voice of the ice demon, IceDevimon, a large tall bipedal demon with ripped wings, and with an unconscious Rika in his large demon hand.

"What did you do to her?" Takato said angrily.

"She is fine, but she was attempting to escape, so I subdued her" IceDevimon said coldly. Takato was outraged.

"How did you even get back anyway?" Henry asked.

"I am not sure, but I was freed recently from that miniature dinosaur by some form of virus."

"The Hazard Virus?" a surprised Henry said to Takato. Takato stared on in shock. He then turned to IceDevimon, and coldly said.

"Guilmon, no more talking. Destroy him…"

"PYRO…" Guilmon yelled, beginning to call out his attack name. He stopped when IceDevimon held out the hand with Rika in in front of him.

"Ah, but you forget, I can use her as a shield, and I can also do this..." he evilly taunted. His eyes glowed, and he fired icy beams from his eyes. "TUNDRA FREEZE"

Guilmon was frozen on the spot, mid attack, with the sphere flying through the air. Takato stared on in shock at his frozen partner. He tried to break the ice. Rika was awoken by the sound.

"What…this freak is still here…let go of me!" she said struggling. "Renamon!"

Renamon leapt into the air.

"DIAMOND…"

"TUNDRA FREEZE"

She was frozen in mid air, diamonds and all. The icicle fell to the ground.

"RENAMON!! No…" Rika gasped, worrying about her partner.

"Right, this guy's going down!" Terriermon shouted, running forwards.

"Right!**DIGI-MODIFY, Digivolution Act…"**

"TUNDRA FREEZE!!"

Henry was frozen, mid swipe.

"Hey, that's not fai…" Terriermon began to say, before becoming the victim of another attack.

Takato stared on in shock and anger, realising he was the only one left, and he had no partner to fight alongside him.

Suddenly, the hollowed ice structure burst into darkness…as the only street lamp illuminating it went out. The sun had been blocked out by thick dark mist.

* * *

**Hypnos Experiment Room, Floor B2, Tokyo Metropolitan Building**

**12:15 JST**

On the machine, electricity flowed down through one electrode. There was an ear-curdling scream of pain.

"Sir, many areas of the city are experiencing blackouts" Riley said to her boss, Yamaki.

"Continue the project, we'll make a cover story later…"

"Yes sir…"

Data began to form below the other electrode. The audience stared on in anticipation. A digital fog appeared below it.

"Filtering complete…" came a voice.

* * *

**East Shinjuku**

**12:16 JST**

Light returned to the hollowed ice structure. Takato felt a cold breath on his back.

"Do not move, and I will not kill you…or her…" came the deep, demonic voice of IceDevimon. Takato felt a claw scratch the back of his neck. He realised he was in the other claw of IceDevimon.

"What happened?" he asked, shocked.

"That power outage proved to be a useful event…"

"Let him go!" came another voice. Takato looked to see Rika.

"Quiet my future Tamer, and we shall achieve much…Now…Takato…is it? Drop your D-Arc on the floor…" came the demonic voice.

"Why?"

"I shall destroy it to avoid you ever thwarting me again…but, if you do not, I shall kill her in front of you." he said, his claws now dug slightly in to Takato and Rika's necks. Rika was speechless in fear, and she screamed.

'**Finally, one of the bad guys get's the right idea. Shame he can't get away with it, eh Takato?'**

"But I thought you wanted me as your Tamer?" Rika said, still shocked.

"I did, but it appears that you have become a weakling, which I have no time for" he replied.

'**God, this guy must have read a book of evil-villain clichés. None the less, Takato, I have a plan…'**

'_What?'_

'**Just let me take control…'**

'_What, how?'_

The voice sighed. **'Just close your eyes for a sec, will ya?'** Takato did as the voice said. **'Perfect…'**

"So, what have you decided then? Will you drop your D-Arc, or will you let her die? Your tamerhood, or your lover? What do you say?"

There was a long pause.

"GO TO HELL…" came an unnaturally sounding Takato. He began to glow with a red aura, and wings appeared on his back. He singed IceDevimon's hand, which by reflex let go. Takato hovered in the air. Rika stared on in shock.

"WHAT?!"

"Well, it was nice, but I have a better idea…OBLITERATION!!"

Waves of red energy flowed out of Takato. The ice was melted as it hit it, and IceDevimon burst into data, which was promptly destroyed by a red force. The ice around Henry, Renamon, Terriermon and Guilmon also melted, as the roar ripped through the air like a nuclear explosion. Rika fell to the ground, the demon holding her now destroyed. She was caught thanks to Renamon's quick-reflexes.

After recovering, they all stared at Takato, his red wings, and red aura, along with his glowing red eyes.

"Now for some fun" the oddly different voice spoke, laughing evilly and with a ball of energy in hand and facing Rika, who quaked in fear.

"Rika!" Renamon shouted in surprise, desperate to save her tamer from dead at the hands of a friend.

'_What are you doing?'_

'**Having some much needed fun, with a good old friend of mine…'**

"YOU ARE NOT KILLING RIKA…" Takato yelled out loud, and the ball of energy vanished. His wings and aura vanished and he collapsed to the floor.

"Takato!" Rika yelled, running over to him. She bent down next to him, and was followed by the rest of the group.

* * *

**Hypnos Experiment Room, Floor B2, Tokyo Metropolitan Building**

**12:17 JST**

Leomon opened his eyes. At first, he was shocked at where he was. His eyesight returned and he looked around the dark room, seeing some familiar faces, and machinery in the darkness. He noticed the spot he was standing on was illuminated.

"What happened? How did I get here?!"

"Calm down bubs" came an Impish voice from his right. He turned to see his killer.

"Impmon! You traitor!" Leomon yelled, leaping at him with his sword. The audience stared on in shock, powerless to do anything. Suddenly, there was the sound of doors opening, and a female voice rang throughout the room.

"Leomon, stop!"

Leomon turned to the source of the voice, and was surprised at who he saw, as were most people in the room.

"Jeri!"

Jeri nodded feebly.

"But, what happened?" Leomon continued.

"It's called Project Resurrection" Janyuu began. "We separated your data from the data of Impmon here."

"But, last time I remember, he was attacking us as Beelzemon! What on earth happened…?!"

"A lot has happened since then…" Jeri said. "And I need to explain…"

Leomon nodded. The two left the room via the main door. Impmon fell back on the floor, finally relieved.

"Gee, you'd think he'd be more grateful!" he moaned.

* * *

**East Shinjuku**

**12:20**

'**Your friends are lucky that you were here. Without you, they would've been obliterated as well.'**

'_I hate you…'_

'**Fine, but here's the punch line: You're stuck with me! You and I, one and the same…god, brains work strangely to cope with things…'**

Takato was about to ask a question, but was awoken by a kiss. He opened his eyes to see Rika kissing him on the lips. He returned the kiss. Renamon and Guilmon stared on in shock, since they hadn't been that sure what had happened in the past few days, while Terriermon and Henry were oddly only slightly surprised. When he pulled away from the kiss, he stared up into his girlfriend's eyes.

"I love you Rika"

"Same…" was the casual reply, before they kissed again.

'**Hey, you're right. She IS hot.'**

'_Hey! Who the heck are you anyway?'_

'**The name's Chaos and I am going to be your worst nightmare. Cue evil laugh.'**

'_O…kay…you're acting weird.'_

'**Look, in all our incarnations I've never been in such a powerless situation before.'**

'_I still have no idea who you are or what you're talking about.'_

'**In time, dear Takato, in time…oh and, by the way, Rika at four o'clock!'**

Takato opened his eyes again.

"Takato, stop ignoring me!" an annoyed Rika said. "What the hell was that earlier?"

"What was what?" replied Takato.

"You're kidding, right? The whole wings and powers and etc. thing of course!" Henry added, surprised at Takato not knowing what they were talking about.

"I really have no idea…" Takato replied. Rika sighed.

* * *

**Experiment Room Cafeteria, Floor B2, Tokyo Metropolitan Building**

**12:15 JST**

Jeri sat opposite her partner on one of the cafeteria chairs. Frankly, the sight of such a huge beast on a small chair was hilarious to her, but she held back her laughs for now.

"Leomon, I have to confess something…"

Leomon cocked his head in confusion. "What Jeri?"

Jeri closed her eyes, trying to hold back the tears by thinking of Leomon on the small cafeteria seat. She began to speak.

"When I lost you…I fell into depression…" Leomon was agape at this already. Jeri gestured for him to wait before speaking. "I felt that I had lost everything, and that my days as a Tamer were over." Jeri placed her D-Arc on the table, noticing that it had returned to normal, with no static at all. "And…something took advantage of that…"

"What?" Leomon said, trying to narrow down the possibilities, including some that truly disgusted him.

"It was a rouge computer program called the D-Reaper. It fed off my pain and depression…it grew, it covered most of Shinjuku and the surrounding areas at its largest size. I was trapped by it, and a fake me deceived my friends…They fought it, using a new power to reach mega called biomerging, where the tamer and partner combine. And, Impmon also fought to save me. He really regrets what he did, and so he volunteered to take part in the resurrection program. I was saved in the end by a combined force from everyone…"

"I'm sorry for leaving so you fell into depression Jeri…" interrupted Leomon, sad and looking down at the table.

"No! Don't feel that way! That's exactly what I didn't want you to feel like, and why I was scared of you coming back!" Jeri interrupted, close to tears. "All I want you to do is…to make up with Impmon…"

Leomon thought about it for a short while. He nodded.

"Fine, as you wish Jeri…"

"Did someone call my name?" said Impmon, exiting the experiment room. Leomon stood up and faced down his killer.

"Impmon…I…I…" he began to say, but coughed up the words.

"You don't have to…I don't deserve forgiveness for what I did…" Impmon emotionally interrupted and turned to walk away.

"I forgive you…" said Leomon, surprising Impmon.

"What?" replied the Imp, surprised that anyone could show him forgiveness for what he did.

"You regret what you did, so I forgive you Impmon…"

Impmon's eyes welled with tears.

"Thank you…" he whispered, unable to speak any louder.

Jeri smiled.

* * *

"And so, Leomon was resurrected and made his peace with Impmon, much to the happiness of Jeri. Meanwhile, I and Rika confessed to Henry, Terriermon and our partners about our relationship, on the condition that they keep it a secret. The events of that day are till a mystery to me, and Chaos has been very quiet recently. Life returned to how it was before we lost our partners, with the exception of enemies of course. Rika and me meet up almost daily, me normally meeting her near her school. We've had to find some very good excuses however to get out of some tight situations though. We now all regularly meet up back at the hideout. We told the others about most of the events of our trip to the Digital World, but most of it they still don't know about. In fact, life seemed to be boring without anything happening. Oh, would I regret that thought..."

THE END

* * *

(1) Based on the head writer of Digimon Tamers' name, although lacking the middle initial. Just a subtle reference though.

Please read and review, since it helps me. Right, next we have the epilogue, which will be based around Rika's diary entries between this story and the next. However, before then:

Next time…

Will Takato find out the truth about his powers? Who is Chaos? Who is Harmony? And why does Takato regret the thought he had?

Find out in Dimensions Book Two: Powers.


	11. Epilogue

Welcome to the epilogue. This will be based around Rika's diary entries until the time when the next book starts in the Dimension's timeline, and will be a useful insight into the world of Dimensions.

DISCLAIMER: Blazing Chaos does not own Digimon, but does own the OCs introduced in this story and later stories.

* * *

**DIMENSIONS**

_**BOOK ONE**_

_Links_

By Blazing Chaos

* * *

**EPILOGUE**

_Rika's Diary Part One  
_

* * *

**23****rd**** October 2007**

**Dear Diary,**

**After weeks and months of boredom, the last few days have been so interesting, and so much has happened. I've lost my diary entry, sneaked out of the house, fallen out with my mum, gone to the Digital World, had a chance to speak my mind, found Renamon again, fallen in love with Takato, had my first kiss, discovered that my boyfriend has supernatural powers, heard a strange voice in my head, recovered my diary entry, been kidnapped while walking in the park, been saved and have seen another incredible display of Takato's supernatural powers.**

**So, for me, all in all, it's been a pretty busy few days. A bit sad to see everything calm down, it's normally so interesting here.**

**Rika**

**25th October 2007**

**Dear Diary,**

**Okay, maybe I was a little hasty in saying that it had quieted down. A Monochromon bioemerged and I and Renamon tried to take him out. It was tough until we managed to push him over, and attack the non-armoured section.**

**Naturally, everyone else turned up after we had won, and I didn't hesitate to point that out.**

**Rika**

**31****st**** October 2007**

**Dear Diary,**

**Halloween! A perfect chance to get revenge on everyone for various causes, as well as to assault Takato with a can of silly string. He didn't seem to find it so funny. Meh, at least I got Ryo caked in the stuff.**

**Rika**

**18****h**** November 2007**

**Dear Diary,**

**It was Henry's birthday today. Terriermon unfortunately was in a bad mood, and so the cake ended up being splattered. The cause of the mood? I'm not too sure. Still, the fun unfortunately ended (or rather, the fun began) when a Minotarumon bio-emerged. Leomon held him in place while a well placed atomic blaster took him down. Jeri seems to be getting a lot happier and a lot better at taming, but I'm still annoyed at being left out of the fun. Still, it brightened up Terriermon's mood, which it a bad thing.**

**Until I hit him with a frying pan, that is.**

**Rika**

**20****th**** November 2007**

**Dear Diary,**

**Terriermon finally woke up today. He instantly tried to get revenge on me, but Renamon scared the life out of him, and I don't think we'll have any trouble any more.**

**Rika**

**25****th**** December 2007**

**Dear Diary,**

**For once I'm happy at Christmas! I had to explain the idea to Renamon, which she still doesn't understand, which is odd since Guilmon cottoned on to the idea very quickly (although that could be due to the free Guilmon bread he got as his present). Everyone came to my house for a party, much to my dismay. Everyone also seemed to buy me new cards, except Takato who bought me both that and a hair band, which he showed me later as a little in-joke between us. He must either be very lucky or have changed the cards round in the deck, since I got a very rare Sakuyamon card. While Guilmon caused a distraction, I and Takato sneaked away to my room, where, cheesy as ever, he suggested we kiss under the mistletoe. Unfortunately, it was a close one when my grandma arrived and we had to pretend we were looking at the cards in my new deck. I think my mum suspected the fact my hair was down.**

**Rika**

**31****st**** December 2007**

**Dear Diary,**

**New Year's Eve. The end of a strange year and things seem to have calmed down. We all went to see the fireworks near the Rainbow Bridge in Odiaba. They were launched from both the bridge and the Tokyo Tower. Takato noticed the amazing similarities between the real Odiaba and the Odiaba in the Digimon TV series, and that the TV series makers must have done their research. I think he's nuts. We managed to get carried away in the crowd away from the others, and we used the chance to kiss at midnight.**

**Rika**

**14****th**** February 2008**

**Dear Diary,**

**I've never liked Valentines Day before. Frankly, I still don't like it now, too soppy and pathetic. Regardless, Takato bought me a card and some chocolates. I felt pretty guilty about not having got him anything, until Guilmon arrived and promptly ate the chocolates on sight, and hence, the card, solving my problem. I told Takato not to be so soppy next time and we kissed.**

**Rika**

**25****th**** March 2008**

**Dear Diary,**

**Well, my birthday today, normally just a family thing for me. My mum was organising a party for me, which pissed me off. Takato suggested that we go to the cherry blossoms to get my mind off of things. It was very…erm…what's the word…pretty, but I was more interested in him. Unfortunately, my grandma saw us kissing, and then I had to tell her. Thankfully, she agreed to keep it a secret, but cautioned me on the perils of 'young love'. I think she's going senile. The party itself was okay in the end, apart from when the moron twins decided to sing.**

**Rika**

**17th April 2008**

**Dear Diary,**

**It was Takato's birthday today. To annoy him, I bought him a hair band as an in-joke. It was funny watching him try to be grateful. I then showed him the actual present, a very rare Gallantmon card. He noted the fact we hadn't biomerged with our partners in ages. I hoped that something interesting might happen soon.**

**Rika**

**3****rd**** June 2008**

**Dear Diary,**

**It was Jeri's birthday today and she was really happy. We had the party at the hideout, and until an over-enthusiastic Guilmon brought the décor down by tripping, and landing on Renamon. We all found this funny. I didn't realise that Renamon could blush.**

**Looks like someone may have a crush…on Dino-boy? Okay, that's just strange. Meh, who am I to talk.**

**Rika**

**8****th**** July 2008**

**Dear Diary,**

**Finally, school is over for this year. I only have one year left at lower-secondary school. I begged my mum to let me move schools this year, but she and my Grandma talked about it and they decided that I would move to the same school as Takato and co when we all moved up to upper-secondary education. Seems that's the best deal I'm going to get for now. Since my mum was out, Takato was able to spend most of the afternoon we had off school at my house. After defeating him a thousand times at card, you'd think he'd give up, wouldn't you?**

**Rika**

**20****th**** July-27****th**** July 2008**

**Dear Diary,**

**Well, I'm back from our holiday. Why do I say our, you ask? Because it was all of the Tamers who went, unfortunately including Mr Perfect and the Moron Twins. It was quite poignant since it was one year since the D-Reaper incident. We all went to Okinawa, where we saw Takato's cousin, Kai, again. I know he wouldn't admit it, but I know that Takato wanted to see me in a swim suit. Renamon nearly drowned, but was saved by Guilmon, who's a good swimmer…until he smashed head on into a rock, that is. It took all of us to get them out. I complained to Takato about his thick headed partner. Terriermon joked "Like tamer like partner". Burying him in sand was fun.**

**Rika**

**3****rd**** September 2008**

**Dear Diary,**

**Well, back to the daily grind again. I still hate my snotty private school, but it's a bit better now that I have Takato to look forward to at the end of the day. The other girls noticed my heightened mood and a rumour spread that I was on anti-depressants.**

**I hate this school.**

**Rika**

**31****st**** October 2008**

**Dear Diary,**

**Halloween rolled round again. Unfortunately, Takato had learned from last year, and he got me with silly string, right in the hair. He spent most of the day apologising while helping me get it out. I responded by getting him again. Disturbingly, he did the eye flashing thing again and got me back, so we spent another four hours trying to get it out of both of our hairs. We ended up joining forces to get Terriermon. **

**Rika**

**18****th**** November 2008**

**Dear Diary,**

**Well, it was Henry's birthday again. Luckily, there was no bioemergence this year round, but Terriermon ruined it by blowing the candles out before Henry could. Conveniently, I had brought a can of silly string, and we got him again, to the cheers of everyone else and the dismay of Henry. Terriermon called it cruel and unusual punishment.**

**Rika**

**23****rd**** November 2008**

**Dear Diary,**

**I'm bored, bored, bored. School is boring, I have nothing to do today (a Sunday), and there hasn't been a bioemergence in weeks. Takato had to work down the bakery all day so I decided to go down and annoy him. Unfortunately, he suggested I help, and there was no way out of it. Still, it was fun to help him make bread (and surprisingly, he didn't burn it). It's annoying when Dino-Boy steals bread, so we had Renamon watch him. For some reason, Renamon didn't really stop him at all. It was a good day all round though.**

**Still, if something interesting doesn't happen in the next week, it's going to drive me nuts…**

**Rika**

--

A short chapter that, but serves its purpose of being better than a simple '13 months later' dialogue in the next story.

Read and review this chapter if you want, not as important as the rest, but knowing if the format worked would be useful.

Book Two will be up soon.


End file.
